Freedom and Predetermination

Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will.

Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.

This is a famous aphorism from Schopenhauer I enjoy quoting, like you fellow blog contributors might have noticed.

Will is the instincts which move and drive man, make him act. It is a notion very much akin to Spinoza's Desire.

For Spinoza, "Everything, in so far as it is in itself, endeavors to persist in its own being; and the endeavor wherewith a thing seeks to persist in its own being is nothing else than the actual essence of that thing."

What drives this endeavor to survive is Desire and it is our very essence as human beings - the source and reason for all our actions. This closely resembles Schopenhauer's Will, doesn't it?

This is Darwinism pushed to the extreme. Every single human activity is about survival of the individual, the species or the group. A theory compatible with Tim's worldview if I am not mistaken. :)

There is no free will; the necessities of survival determine instinct, instincts determines desire, and desire determines thought and action.

Thank you Will Durant for expressing this clearly - The Story of Philosophy, page 136

But remember this from Schopenhauer's quote, even if all human activity is predetermined, we as individual can choose whether or not we do what we wish.

In life, the die is not necessarily cast. Let's divide the dice of life into three sets.

1. The die of genetics, the social background die and the die of instincts, desire and human cognition. This set of dice is cast before birth.
2. Each action leads to irreversible change even if only to an extremely small degree. In this set a die is cast with each action.
3. We have the freedom to act. We can create change in our life, try to take it in the direction we are aiming for. This set of dice can be cast over and over indefinitely.

We have the opportunity to throw die #3 as we please. Let us indulge, it is our only freedom, even if this "freedom" is a mere subset of a system where all is determined.

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal. -Schopenhauer

We are links in the chain of evolution. The adaptation mechanisms at stake are outside our control and drive our actions, but with little decisions within this framework we make the whole chain hold.

Even if it is predetermined by dice sets #1 and #2, the die of change - die #3 - gives meaning to our lives.