There are
certain topics that are like showstoppers in the intellectual debate world.
The notion of ‘Free Will’ must be in one of the top positions among those. And
like other good debates, the main points revolve around- ‘what exactly is Free
will’ and ‘Is there Free will’. I am not going to answer them today (that would
have been interesting!). I am not sure whether we as human beings are certain
about our understanding of free will. But I will give a brief review on the
book, ‘Free Will’ by Dr. Sam Harris, discuss his opinion and might throw some
of mine (opinion, that is).
The Book
Starting
with the book, it certainly is a great read. The book is pretty short (at
around 100 pages) considering the subject matter. But it certainly creates an
impact. It enforces you to not just read its’ contents within but also to think
and to introspect. Dr. Harris has a PhD degree in Neuroscience. He knows what
he is talking about. He started off with what we as a community think or define
of ‘free will’ and then argued that there is no such thing as ‘free will’. He
discussed the implications- both perceived and actual. He finished off with
assurances that it would not be the end of all things if there is no free will.
Rather, we might become more cautious about our moral responsibilities. I gave
it a 5-star and recommend everyone to read the book. Whether you agree or disagree
with the rationale provided, you will certainly be more aware of certain facts
and their ramifications.
Discussion
Combining
the book’s narrative and my own thoughts, Free will to me is sort of the
freedom to choose between conflicting decision paths. The question is, whether
this freedom is absolute or not. Sam Harris pointed out that it is not. And I
also believe him mostly. If you look into the contemporary scientific research,
there’s still no evidence of some extra ‘being’ or energy (akin to a soul). To
that extent, all what we do can be ascribed to physical phenomena. Being a
student of neuroscience myself, I can assure you that all the decision making,
emotions happening in your mind are the product of neuronal firing in your
brain (neurons are a kind of brain cells). And if you look more closely, all
factors that lead to the specific pattern of neuronal firing (which in turn
lead you to a certain decision) is not in your control. If that’s the case, do
we really have any freedom to choose? No, fortunately or unfortunately, we
don’t.
Let’s take
an example from my own life experience. I used to write poems and stories as a
small child. And then, at around age 15 or 16, I stopped. Then, now for the
last couple of years, my desire to write rekindled. I want to start writing
again. Someone could argue that if I am making all these decisions, isn’t that
enough evidence of free will? However, it does the opposite. I made a conscious
decision of stopping though I liked writing stuffs. Why did I like writing in
the first place? What were the reasons? If I liked writing what happened that I
stopped? I can obviously tell you stories and my own explanations- like other
things crept up and I needed to set some priorities. But then how did I really
set priorities? What causes me to replace writing with something else? And then
you could ask, why start now? What changed again?
If you
think along this line long enough, you would soon realize, the reason behind
our choices, intentions, decision making are dictated by our past experiences,
our childhood, our genes, our surroundings etc. If al these factors are
remained same, you would take the same decision again and again. And thus, we
really do not enjoy free will because we are not really have complete freedom
of choices.
I drank tea
this morning. Why did I drink tea instead of coffee? Because probably I prefer
tea more. But why do I prefer tea? And just to prove this point wrong, I can
obviously have coffee instead of tea. Does that imply I’m free to choose what I
drink? Does this imply I have free will? Now think closely. Obviously in my
subconscious, I am more inclined towards drinking tea than coffee in the
morning. There are obviously some reasons behind this particular preference. It
could be my past experiences, past availability and so on. But since I am
already inclined towards one, the choice is already taken. Now what if I change
just to prove the point? But then, am I that kind of person who acts to defy
things or am I just that sort who let it pass by without bothering. The answer
again lies in my past- on factors that I have no control. But the answer
dictates whether I’ll change to coffee just to spite someone or not.
We do not
have any control over our birthplace. We do not choose our parents and
childhood. It’s completely chance whether I have loving parents, healthy
childhood or I have parents who are divorced, abusive and so on. We do not
choose our genome and genes (not yet anyway). It’s again out of our control
whether we will be disposed of some faulty genes resulting in a fatal early
onset of a disease or a relatively disease-free life. And all these things have
great number of effects in our decision making, our choices. So, how exactly
are we free to choose?
Obviously,
there are implications if there is really no free will. I’ll give another
example (taken from the book) to explain. I’ll give out a few scenarios.
Scenario 1:
a 3-year child shoots a young woman while playing with a revolver fully loaded.
The woman died on spot. The revolver was kept without much protection.
Scenario 2:
a 10-year boy shoots a young woman when the woman was teasing the boy. This boy
has very abusive parents and very hard home life.
Scenario 3:
a 16-year-old boy shoots a young woman when the woman broke up with him and
chose someone else. This boy had abusive parents and was molested and raped
repetitively during his childhood.
Scenario 4:
a 25-year-old boy shoots a young woman just because it might be fun. This boy
had loving parents and a spoiled childhood.
Scenario 5:
a 25-year-old boy shoots a young woman just because it might be fun. This boy
had loving parents and a spoiled childhood. Upon further inspection, it was
found that this boy had a tumor in the medial prefrontal cortex (a brain tumor)
which affects decision making and emotional control.
Now, given all these scenarios, how will you react
to these? In all of the scenarios, the result was same-a young innocent woman
died. But you would not be outraged and claim for vengeance in all of the
cases. For scenario 1, you would term it as an accident. In scenario 2, you
might not want to blame the boy because his brain development is still not
complete and his reaction might be ‘reasonable’ because of his home life. In
scenario 3, you might be conflicted. At one side, a teenager has committed a
heinous crime. But you could also see why he might be the way he is and the
factors were not in his control. For scenario 4, you would be calling out for
blood and harsh punishment for the crime. You might be doing the same for
scenario 5, until the point, you heard that the boy had a brain tumor affecting
his decision. The moment you hear that, you might want to agree that the boy
shouldn’t hold responsible for the death. Interestingly, when there is a
physical basis or reasoning behind one’s action, we think him not responsible.
It is as if the decision making is out of physical realm. And there lies the
problem. All the choices we make, all the decision making- everything has a
physical base and there are physical factors behind such. We are nothing but
automatons working under set rules. We can’t really choose anything we want. We
really do not have the ‘freedom’ to really choose one thing over the other.
Controlling all these outside factors, someone can make or predict the exact
choices that we would make. Scientists have demonstrated it already. And the
biggest implication, as described above would be moral responsibility. Should
we hold someone responsible for some act when we are not the author of our
thoughts and actions? What does it mean to punish someone for something then?
Are not they as much of a victim? There are no clear answers. Not to me at least.
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