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Free Will
by Anwar Shaikh |
Of all mysteries, free will is the greatest. It
simply means man's power to choose or refuse, yet behind the facade of
simplicity, there lurks one of the greatest complexities that the human mind has
encountered.
To understand the philosophical nature of this problem,
one ought to delve into its background.
Imagine the intellectual state of the primitive man at
the dawn of culture. The rustling winds, the majestic motion of streams and
rivers, the dignity ot lofty mountains, the twinkling stars, the silvery moon
and the blazing sun - all must have filled him with a supernatural awe, leading
him to believe that there is a deity which has created this colossal universe
and manages it actively. Since everything else is controlled by the supernatural
being, the primitive man must have thought, that his own breathing including his
actiona and their causes are also determined by the Almighty. Thus man has no
power over himself or the environment, and it is God's will which prevails over
everything.
Add to this, man's tendency to laziness and his
enthusiasm to blame others for his sorrows. All his grief by way of hunger,
poverty, disease, social degradation and ill-health are someone else's doing. It
is because man does not like blame; he prefers to blame the causes outside his
jurisdiction.
Man's fear of the natural phenomena and his reluctance
to accept blame for his inaptitudes and follies, gave birth to the concept of
determinism. It is the opposite of free will, and means that all events
including moral choices are completely determined by the already existing
causes, and there is nothing that man can do himself. However, there is an
element of truth in this view; there are certain things over which man has no
control such as parentage, colour, nationality, language, cultural inheritance,
upbringing, and numerous factors of this nature. They do influence man's
intellectual attitudes, moral values and behaviour, yet they do not deprive him
of free choice. Free will means the will to select or reject and not the ability
to act, though it may form a part of free will yet its absence does not negate
the validity of free will; choosing to travel by boat is an act of free will but
having no boat is no contradiction of free will. Similarly, man's desire to fly
like a bird, is no part of free will; it is a fantasy; free will concerns
reality and not sheer imagination. However, when imagination is brought within
the bounds of reality, it becomes the subject of free will: manufacturing an
aircraft to fly in the air is an example of this fact.
Religion is yet another advocate of determinism because
it assumes the pre-existence of a procreator or a creator God who assembles or
creates the universe and administers it. The priestly interest has a gnod deal
to do with this theory. The priest, who projects himself as the Vicar of God,
becomes the source of grace or intercession to the devotees and thus enjoys a
good deal of benefit from the superstitious minds of his followers who believe
in determinism, yet expect him to alter the course of predestined events by
invoking the grace of God!
Predestination is another word for determinism but it
is usually used by the religious scholars; it refers to the principle that God
has already chosen those people whom he intends to save. However, in the field
of the Semitic religions, especially Christianity, predestination is based on
the power of God to foreknow everything. This is a way around the objection that
God's actions are arbitrary: He saves some and condemns others wilfully. On the
ground of foreknowledge, it is claimed that as God knows who will be righteous,
His determination is based on merits. However, this is only one of the opinions
and the argument of good deeds which can be carried to its logical conclusion.
The Christian thinkers like Augustine, Luther and Thomas Aquinas ascribe
salvation to God's unmerited grace, and it is well known that God's grace is not
available to everyone. Thus, predestination becomes a tale of arbitralion.
Confining predestination to salvation only does not
appear to te the correct Christian view. It is used in the same sense as the
word: "determinism," meaning that the causes for everything have
already been fixed by the Maker eternally, and therefore, whatever is or will
be, has been predestined. There is ample evidence for this theory in chapter 26
of St. Matthew. During the Last Supper, Jesus told Peter that he would deny him
(Jesus) three times "Before the cock crow" ( 26:34 ). Despite Peter's
assertions of total faith and obedience, this is exactly what happened.
According to the Bible, he did deny Jesus thrice as he had prophesised:
"And Peter remembered the word of Jesus .... before
the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice." (26: 75).
As it happened, Peter wept bitterly.
Having the common Semitic origin, Islam has the same
approach towards determinism as Christianity. However, the situation has been
made somewhat dubious by the sectarian interpretation. Moslem scholars started
indulging in philosophic expression c.757. It became fashionable to discuss
whether the Koran was eternal or created. The school known as the "Mutazilites"
(the Seceders) denied the eternity of the Koran because it implied
predestination. The Caliph Al-Mamun championed this interpretation. However,
Abul Hasan Al-Ashari (873-945) preached that Allah is the supreme sovereign and
He does what He wills. He has determined every movement and event, and is the
primary cause of everything that is, or may happen.
In practice, Al-Ashari was right. The Mutazilites were
a philosophical- group and wanted to give a rational understanding to the Koran.
Such people being intellectuals usually see in their Scriptures what is really
not there. It is an attempt to rationalise faith to satisfy one's conscience but
the faith and reason are usually diametrically opposed to each other. The
Islamic doctrine is strictly deterministic:
"He (Allah) chooses for His mercy whom He will
(The House of Imram: 25)
"Whomsoever God will, He leads astray, and
whomsoever He will, He sets him on a right path"
(Cattle: 35 and 125)
" It is not given to any soul to die, except by
the leave of God, at an appointed time"
( The House of Imram: 135)
In this context, the Ajivikas of India, also deserve a
mention. They were a heretical sect of India which emerged at the same time when
Buddhism was rising in the subcontinent. They believed that there is no cause
for the purity or depravity of things; they become good or bad without any cause
or reason. Effort, whether personal or external has nothing to do with the state
of things; they are what they are, and become what they become owing to their
destiny and nature. Man has no power to shape his future. This is yet another
explanation of determinism.
Fear of the forces of nature and the uncertainty of
future, are some of the major factors which arouse superstition, making humans
prefer determinism to free will. Astrology is an example to this effect. It is
considered a science or a pseudoscience, and is used in the forecasting of
earthly and human events through the observation of stars such as the Sun, the
Moon and the planets. Some people believe that there exists special reiations
between the heavenly bodies, their motions and configurations with one another.
Man's destiny is considered closely knit with the astrological movements, thus
rendering the universe totally mechanistic in nature. The Greek philosophers
such as Plato and Aristotle also made their contributions to these attitudes.
The mechanistic working of the cosmos is believed to represent the will or God;
it is made manifest by various omens which warn humans of the impending dangers
so that they can take necessary steps to ward off the disaster. This is the idea
that lay behind the old Mesopotamian collections of celestial omens. The royal
court was provided with such information to be in a ready state for encountering
the imminent hazards of the mechanistic order of the universe.
The Stoics of Greece advocated the concept or rate
which closely resembled determinism but without excluding free will altogether.
Their doctrine of fate was founded on their distinction between the basic and
initiating causes. They viewed man as a small part in the overall pattern of the
world. Hence, the famous Stoic saying that a man is like dog tied behind a cart
which he must follow willy nilly.
Man has paid a heavy price for believing in
determinism. This view imposes the volition of a super being on the universe
which acts as a machine without having a will of its own. Man being a part of
the cosmos, is required to act likewise. It is on this principle that men who
claimed to be the messiahs and prophets commanded obedience of fellow men by
projecting themselves as the envoys of God, who is claimed to be the master of
the world. The inter religious hatred and carnage has become the destiny of
every believer for this reason. The evils which man would not have accepted
otherwise, were thrust on him as the will of God, the true source of
determinism. Slavery, the greatest human abomination was projected as the will
of God!
Most despots and authoritarian social movements owe
their success to the concept of determinism. All Semitic rulers i.e. Jewish,
Christian and Moslem, claimed to have been appointed by God and given the divine
rights. Hegel, the German philosopher believed in the deterministic nature of
history. He advocated that the ordinary folks followed the path chosen for them
by history. They did not understand the nature of the social advancement, and
were like actors who enacted the roles allotted to them. Hegelian dialectical
materialism based on the mutual reactions of contradictory social forces, which
was adopted by Karl Marx, represents a deterministic government, desirous of
controlling every aspect of an individual's life.
The philosophical doctrine of determinism, having
projected the universe as a vast machine bound to operate on a strictiy causal
basis, has equally affected the scientific thinking. This attitude is rooted in
the Newtonian model of mechanics; it means that all future positions and
velocities of a particle are determined completely by the forces acting on it.
The Newtonian or classical mechanics is fully
deterministic in its outlook: it can facilitate exact predictions of future (as
well as of past) if we have the exact masses and the forces, their basic
positions and velocities. However, this view is applicable to the working of the
large systems only: predicting the orbital motions and return journey from the
earth to the moon, are some of the examples. The French mathematician, Pierre
Simon de Laplace is considered the major proponent of the deterministic
character of the universe. He held:
The present state of the universe is due to its
previous state which is also the cause of the state that is to follow. An
intelligent being who knows at a given time, all forces acting on the physical
phenomena and the momentary positions of all things of the universe, will be
able to translate the motions of all things, large and small, into a single
formula, yielding a complete understanding of the universe; thus nothing will
remain uncertain, and it will be quite possible to see both past and future with
clarity.
This scientific attitude makes the universe a machine
which runs exactly according to the intended design of the maker and has no
capacity or taste for changing its operation of behaviour.
However, this classical view or determinism has been
successfully challenged by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. It should be
remembered that the classical or deterministic theory depends on precisely
knowing the initial positions and velocities of all the particles in a system.
While this procedure is operative in respect of large bodies, it does not work
at atomic and subatomic level; the study of motions of electrons within atoms
and molecules, is an example to this effect. This difficulty is caused by what
is called diffraction. It is a blurring agent, and is not accidental in a
measurement but an inherent and inesuapable feature associated with the wave
nature of light. This blurring or diffraction leads to a corresponding
uncertainty in the measurement of an object. Diffraction occurs when the light
from a point source is not brought to a point focus in the image plane of a
telescope or microscope.
This uncertainty principle is also known as
Indeterminacy principle. The reason is simple: what cannot be measured exactly
cannot be operated and predicted precisely. Therefore, it is not subject to
determinism, and must have some control over its behaviour. This indeterminacy
springs from the fact that one can observe accurately only the momentum of an
electron or its position. They both cannot be done at the same time. The truth
depicted by the Uncertainty principle is confirmed by the fact that the
Newtonian mechanics cannot be applied to atoms, the building blccks of the
universe. Thus, it is not the Newtonian laws, the advocates of determinism,
which govern the essence and operation of the universe but the quantum
mechanics, which does not describe exactitudes but possible happenings; they are
of statistical nature for being the ambassadors of probabilities of alternative
occurrences. They compare with the actuarial tables of insurance companies,
which give the probable death rate within a certain age-range and cannot tell
the exact life span of a particular person.
Teleology is yet another angle for probing into the
nature or this issue. It means "end, " that is, an explanation is
given with reference to some end or purpose. Aristotle, was the first person who
gave the most effective account of teleology. He believed that the best
explanation of something is achieved not only by considering its material form
and efficient causes, but it also requires the inclusion of the final cause i.,e.
the purpose for which the thing exists or has been produced. He thought of form
as the determining agent in the universe but form does not take place through a
conscious process; things assume form by what they have in them through a
general operation rather than through the working of a constant efficient cause.
In simple language, things assume forms according to what they are destined to
be; things become what they become according to their potential to be.
Therefore, becoming or assumption of form, is dictated by its inherent
potential. Aecording to the Aristotelian teleology, every thing has a purpose in
the universe, but the things are not striving to achieve their ends consciously;
they work like the organs of a body which have their functions to perform but
they do so without knowing this fact yet they move in the direction which
fulfils their allotted roles.
The modern biological thinking in some quarters is also
deterministic. It is said, and quite rightly, that parts of an organism have a
purpose with respect to the whole. They even go further and claim that life
itself is inherently purposive, but without defining "purpose" or
man's purpose as a biological entity. This is an extension of the Lamarckian
view of evolution based on the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The fact
that offsprings inherit traits of their parents is a deterministic feature, yet
evolution is a process of natural selection, which is random i.e. it is not a
phenomenon subject to the control of a particular being, and is affected by many
factors which are brought about by the elements of chance and unpredictability
such as mutation and environmental vicissitudes. Therefore, it is not possible
to predict what kind of species the biological changes may produce. Thus biology
is cited as an example of an "after- the-fact exploratory science." It
means that biological facts take place before they can be subjected to an
examination. The reason is simple: the cause of evolution cannot be determined.
What I have said so far is a brief history of the
debate which has centered around the subject of determinism versus free will. It
shows its significance but does not solve the problem. This is a fundamental
issue and points of this nature seldom admit absolute solution, yet one has to
ponder over them in search of clarification.
Is free will a reality? And if so, what is its relation
to determinism?
To start with, teleology or purpose does not prove that
whatever exists, has a maker. If this were true, one would be entitled to ask
how the maker himself came into existence. Thus the question of becoming could
not be answered solely with reference to the ancient principle of
cause-and-effect. Assumption of an "unmoved-mover" as Aristotle made,
is just an intellectual luxury because a mover himself has to be moved by
something else. Similarly, a maker who has a purpose, must be dependent on it
for his own fulfilment, and therefore, cannot be absolute in himself. Though
purpose is a reality in terms of a function and daily business of life, in a
metaphysical sense it does not hold good. Teleology, contrary to popular belief,
is completely destructive to the concept of creation. The God who is dependent
on the fulfilment of his purpose, cannot be absolute, and therefore lacks the
power and knowledge to create such a vast universe requiring immense
intelligence and control. Since teleologically, this is not a possibility, the
universe has got to be self - perpetuating, and self-perpetuation is possible
through the dominance of a creative principle only. This universe and whatever
is in it, is a manifestation of the Creative principle. While I may not indulge
in explaining the Creative principle here, I ought to describe my idea of
principle.
A principle is an underlying formula or doctrine which
is responsible for the existence of a thing, and it also imparts a purpose or
function to whatever it forms. Take for example, the scientific principle H20.
It refers to two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen. It means that when
these elements mix in the stated ratio, they do so for the purpose ot bringing
water into existence. So the purpose is not associated with the maker but the
make itself, which is governed by the underlying principle.
The performance of a function is also called purpose.
It is inherent and self-directed. The organs of a living body do whatever they
have to do without knowing what they are doing. It is done for self-fulfilment,
which is usually a successful operation for survival i.e. the continuance of
existence. Since existence is an evolutionary process, it is a spontaneous
phenomenon, and therefore, its own purpose, and is self-directed.
With a view to carrying the point to its logical
conclusion, I ought to refer to the old hypothesis that existence comes out of
nothingness. Thus nothingness is the womb of existence. However, as a tree comes
out of a seed and a baby springs from semen, the conditions prevailing in the
beginning of existence must have been very basic and chaotic to resemble
nothingness. It is claimed that initially the universe was an aggregate of dust
and gases. To understand the dignity of man, the possessor of free will, it may
not be out of place to add a few words how the world came about as we know it:
Nobody knows exactly what happened during the first
second of the Big Bang, the starting point of the universe. Quarks are said to
have played a major role in the first millionth of a second. It was just an
ocean of heat during the first second. It consisted of five elementary
particles, namely, protons, neutrons, electrons, photons and neutrinos. These
particles which at temperatures about 10 28 degrees lose their individuality,
wandered at will without recognising each other. (Here two points should be
noted about the reality of the universe:
1. The fact that the elementary particles become one and
the same thing over temperatures of 10 28 degrees, vouches for their basic
unity. This proves the old mystical principle of unity in diversity.
2. Since these particles do have their individuality
as protons, neutrons, electrons, photons and neutrions, it means that it is
quite natural for the basic unity to emerge as diversity through a process of
attaining individuality.)
However, in some cases, the wandering protons and neutrons
did combine to form the simplest nuclear system known as the deutron i.e. heavy
hydrogen nucleus.
This is a brief account of what happened during the
first second. Instead of indulging in further details which is bound to fill
several pages, I ought to curtail the narrative and add that protons have
positive electric charge and electrons are negatively charged. As temperatures
fell to about 3000 degrees, each proton united with an electron to mark the
birth of atoms, the building blocks of the universe. We are told that the
evolution has been going on for the last fourteen billion years.
Free will is the trait of higher life and nature has
gone a very long to way to create it. Take for instance, the planet earth, the
only known source of life. To create life, the earth is exactly at the right
distance from the sun to receive the correct amount of sunlight; otherwise it
would be too hot or too cold as the cradle of life. The magnetic field of the
earth is also made to measure for deflecting back to space the lethal radiation
of the sun whose severity would otherwise destroy life. Its miraculous
engineering is vouched for by the spin of its axis at just the right speed which
enables the day- time side to warm in sunshine and the night-time side to cool.
The precise gravity of the earth assured by its calculated mass enables the
molecules to hold together, otherwise, they would drift off into space. With
this description, we should also remember that the planet earth, in the
beginning was just a rocky and barren place. The earth had to pass through many
stages to develop an environment suitable for producing life. Man is the highest
stage of this process, and evolution of man is not possible without endowing him
with free will.
Life begins with the emergence of free will. A stone is
a stone because it does not have free will but a cell such as amoeba is live
because it has the will to move about despite the fact that they both are made
of atoms. Obviously, free will lies dormant in atoms and increases in intensity
as the ladder of evolution extends higher. At subhuman stage, it is passive but
at human level, it becomes active and pines for taking over the conduct of one's
ego or self. Its emergence is the greatest wonder for two reasons: firstly
fancy, the inorganic state of the universe; its passage through a labour of 14
biilion years for the sheer joy of producing man endowed with free will.
Secondly, the librtarian nature of free will because it nearly eliminates the
dominance of the physical law as applicable to human life and enables man to
conduct his affairs as he pleases. This point is better understood if we realise
that the human body is governed by exactly the same laws of physics and
chemistry as all other bodies. For example, my walk is activated by what is
called the law of reactions, that is actions and reactions are equal and
opposite. Unless my body observes this law my legs cannot move but this law does
not tell my legs where to go. Obviously, something has emerged inside me, and
this something is not only over and above the confines of physics and chemistry,
but also their goal. This something is free will, my own power of choosing which
decides whether my legs should carry me to a temple or a tavern, a rose-garden
or a race-course.
Free will bestows on me the freedom of choice. Thus I
am at liberty to indulge in vice or virtue and become a deuce or deus. It means
freedom is the purpose of life and man has the right to demand the elimination
of all those barriers which restrict his freedom of action, bearing in mind that
everyone is entitled to freedom and therefore, one's own free will must not
become a source of denying freedom to one's fellow-beings.
It should be borne in mind that free will is
imperceptibly interwoven with individuality. The particles constituting the
universe are basically the same but they acquire individuality as protons and
neutron through the process of evolution. Therefore, the purpose of evolution is
to create individuality, which implies one's innate right to maintain one's
identity. Thus, the extension of the evolutionary ladder from particles to man
clearly shows that the cosmos is marching towards freedom. In fact, it is an
attempt to arouse the dormancy of atoms to the state of consciousness for
creating free will.
However, this universe is subject to the law of
polarity, that is, hot cannot exist without cold and light is meaningless
without dark. This is the reason that free will has its opposite, determinism,
mentioned previously. Existence is a form of determinism because it cannot take
place unless the underlying principle is observed strictly and lasts as long as
the underlying principle is adhered to vigorously. However, existence is not for
the sake of existence; everything that exists has a function; a function can be
mechanical which is accomplished like a machine and thus free will is not
required, but at human level, the situation is almost reversed. Firstly, man is
a freedom loving individual, and secondly, his functional nnagnitude is so great
and varied that it cannot be accomplished without free will. Thus in human
terms, free will has a precedence over determinism. In other words, determinism
is an organisational principle whereas free will is an operative doctrine.
A closer examination of the issue discloses that free
will is not possible without determinism, which is the fountain of individuality
or identity of something. A thing has to exist before it can exercise its
options i.e. free will, but the purpose of distinguished existence i.e. as an
individual, especially as a human is to discharge certain functions which
require free will to choose and refuse for carrying out the functional tasks.
Thus free will is the more evolved and advanced form of determinism. In fact,
free will is the purpose of determinism.
When this fact is borne in mind, the friction between
the two disappears because they emerge as two aspects of the same thing as
positive and negative poles are of electricity. The relationship between the two
can be viewed with reference to one's genetic pool: one inherits genes from
one's parents. They determine not only one's potential to be but also endow upon
one the capacity to break away from the constraints of the DNA through
individual choice such as learning and also act as the source of enabling one to
improve oneself by securing a better adjustment with the environment. Again, for
the purpose of existence, it is determined that action must have a reaction but
the free will gives one the ability not only to choose the stimulus but also the
method of reacting to it. For example, one can forgive or retaliate. Thus the
incidence of determinism becomes subject to a vast number of choices. It is
determined that only a bird can fly, and man cannot, but he can make this
deficiency good through an aircraft.
In fact, further evolution of humanity is not possible
without the proper use of free will. Humanity does not mean just intelligence
and power of speech; morality is its most significant and greatest ingredient.
It implies exercising one's options responsibly and judicially because these are
the factors which entitle a mammal to be called a human.
Morality or ethics is man's concern as how to act
voluntarily in relation to others and also maintain his dignity as a human.
Man's actions and responses spring from his bodily movements and reflexes which
are determined by his physical make-up. However, the truth is that though man as
a structure is a symbol of determinism, his actions are not stereotype. He may
not have absolute control over his body but he has sufficient command over it to
mould its benaviour. This is the reason that human life is not mechanical like
that of the heavenly bodies, and he largely does what he chooses to do. This
power of choosing is free will. Without it development of morality, the essence
of humanity is not possible.
Greater mystery is associated with free will than
anything else. Change of dust into atoms, atoms into cells and cells into
humans, clearly indicates that the universe is involved in a struggle for
self-improvement. Man seems to be its highest peak, and it is denoted by his
free will. Is man really the apex of the universal improvement? It cannot be;
man is still imperfect. Therefore, the process of universal improvement must go
beyond man. There must be a higher plane of existence which is perfect for being
free from disease, decline and death. Thus, free will, the mystery, leads even
to a greater mystery. This is the state of eternity, brimming with hope,
hilarity and happiness. One may call it godhead. What is it? One must probe into
the mystery, which is posed by the mystery of free will.
The proper enquiry into this problem requires that we
should acknowledge thc reality of free will instead of wailing about
determinism, which is tne fountain of free will. The concept of free will and
its force vouch for the fact that man is born to be free, and therefore, all
hurdles such as superstition, poverty, ignorance, injustice, tyranny, despotism,
etc., which impede the course of free will and freedom, must be cleared with
dare, dignity and dedication.
Free will is the virtue which must be exercised with a
sense of responsibility. A free man's life expresses the greatness of free will,
and it is this state of living, which deserves to be called liberty.
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