Blog 6: Free will and determinism

Do we have free will or are we under a pre-determined future? This has been an issue that scientists and Philosophers have faced for many years. Throughout my study of freedom and determinism, there has been a Philosopher who I can connect to and agree with. French Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre was a big influence on me because he stated that "existence precedes essence" and that we are all responsible for the choices we make. "Although our past experiences and developed personality have set stage for our moment of choice, it is the beckoning future that defines our spirit" just like Sartre stated.

In the play Oedipus the King, it was said to be determine he would kill his father and marry his mother. Indeed it did happen, but it happened only because he made the choice to make it happen. In his anger crossing the road he reacted on his impulses and killed his father and all of his servants. He had the free will to be patient and not react in such a way. There was no outside force that made him commit murder. As one of his choices led to more conflict resulting in him to marry his mother. Though he did not know it was his mother, he chose to marry her. The determinist will say that since he didn't know that was his mother, destiny still made it happen and therefore his choice wasn't freely. For if he would have known he would have not married her. However, they forget to examine that one choice affects the other, if he would have not murder his father, his fate would have most likely ended differently.

I believe that in every situation we are in, we have the capacity of choosing and deciding what we are going to do. There is nothing forcing us to make a choice, we make it ourselves and have to take responsibility for the choices we make. As Sartre mentioned "we are people whose existence from moment to moment precedes our essence". We have to make wise and intelligent decisions to see great results for ourselves. With every choice we make, we are creating ourselves and defining our essence. We can never blame others for the choices we make, we can only blame ourselves.

We can see that in the movie Minority Report, John Anderton as mad as he was, as much as he wanted to pull the trigger and kill Leo Crow he did not. He made a choice, though it was said to be determined for him to kill Leo Crow, he made the final decision not to.  Those who say that we have no choice and that is all determined, they are just making excuses to not take responsibility for their actions. Indeed, there are moments where we have no control over things, but we always have a choice on what we will do next, and decide what's best for us. Better said; while you can't always choose your circumstances, you can always choose your response to them. If everything were determined than whenever we do something, we shouldn't regret that we could have done something else. Which is something Philosopher William James mentioned and I totally agree with. If you regret than it means you had an alternative, a choice, so you cannot be a determinist. That would definitely be a contradiction. I've seen that many of us go around regretting things we've done before; therefore we cannot be determinist like Philosopher Baron d'Holbach, who believed we have no free will.

Free will is one of the most powerful things a human being can have. I, just like Sartre believe that we are "condemned to be free", our actions are the only genuine part of ourselves that define our lives. "We are the sum of our actions and accomplishments, not our wishes, dreams or intentions". We have to actively engage and pursue our dreams and goals. There is no such thing as fate or pre-determined destiny for me. I am hooked on the idea of Hinduism, and that fate doesn't exist. It all happens for a reason, if your life sucks is because you brought it upon yourself. Karma in Hinduism explains that all disasters and tragedies happen for a reason, if we do bad deeds in our former life then we will suffer in our next life time. We are creating our own life through our current actions and if we want a better life, we must do good deeds. We have total free will and if things happen beyond our control is because we brought it upon ourselves. We make our own fate, just like Oedipus the King and John Anderton made their own fate. Pre-determinism is just an illusion and we must accept that we will always have a choice, and our choices makes us who we are.