Serialised book (with a progressively updated >>dashboard/ToC<< page). Part I: Metaphysics of the Life Instinct.

Book: Philosophy of Life Instinct: Chapter 6: Free Will

Can we really choose our thoughts, beliefs and actions?

Are we really free? We agonise over our decisions. Friends, employers, parents, spouses, and just about anyone tells us we should have done something other than we did, that we should do something other than what they know we will do. But could we have done the other thing? Can we do the other thing?

It is the conundrum of freedom. Not political or social freedom, but our biological freedom, our freedom as a life form. Do we have it? Or don’t we?

Let us explore the various aspects of Free Will — its definition, types, utility, illusion or reality, and origins.

We will focus upon Free Will in humans, although we will see in the Utility and Origin sections that it is almost certainly present in several other advanced life forms on Earth.

1. What is Free Will?

Free Will is not the evolutionary rule-based actions of life forms in response to external or internal changes. For example, we will take it that if a horse is hungry and eats grass, it is executing a set rule, not making a choice. Another example — if a mother hears her baby crying and goes to comfort it, it is not a choice. But if we see the mother ignoring her crying baby to teach it to calm itself, we surely know she is making a choice. What is the difference? It is that she intervened in what pure instinct would make her do.

We know we cannot intervene in all instinctive actions. For example, if we stumble, we will grab onto something or recover balance to avoid falling. But there are many situations in which we seem to have the ability to insert choice. What is characteristic of these? It appears to be a combination of two things — the ability to observe ourselves objectively and situations that don’t warrant instant, instinctive action.

We should note three stages to the exercise of Free Will — identifying the options, choosing one, and its execution. In retrospect, the action may turn out to be one of three types — no action, action aligned with instinct (if such an option was there), or action against instinct (if such options were there).

So, we can define Free Will as — The ability to observe ourselves in a situation, take time to consider the options, make a choice, and act on it.

2. Types of Free Will

We have more than one type of freedom of choice on close consideration.

Choice of thought

We have periods when our thoughts wander away from the immediate task at hand every day. We think about the future or past, something we like or dislike, one person or another. Often we are content to let our thoughts wander where they will, but at other times we turn them towards specific areas. When we do this attentively and deliberately, we choose the subject to think about.

Choice of belief

Most of us have deeply ingrained beliefs that we rarely reconsider, yet we also take small or significant new positions at various points in life. It could be as simple as believing our child will eat its packed sandwich in school to something as intricate as women having the right to abortion.

Choice of action

The basic actions of life are of two types — automatic and immediate, or considered and slow. Our self-aware and choosing minds can’t intervene for automated actions, and they run their course. But for the latter, we can and do intervene. And we don’t always choose what the older parts of our mind wants us to, nor what our rational mind tells us either. We often choose something else. Simple examples illustrate this: We may be sleepy, but we decide not to sleep just yet; we know we should eat less sugar, but we go ahead and have another chocolate; we believe lying is immoral, but we tell a fib anyway. That’s freedom — to make the poor choices as much as the good ones.

Some actions support life indirectly and arise from thought than instinctive survival, growth and reproduction. Most modern work and recreational tasks are of this nature, from having an office meeting to reading a novel. The freedom of choice works the most for these advanced activities that are almost exclusively human.

3. The Utility of Free Will

Choice, or Free Will, is a trait of living things, or at least the more advanced among them. (We may take the provisional view that it is absent in the lower animals, insects, plants, fungi, cellular organisms and viruses.)

What purpose does it serve in such higher life forms? (We will leave aside the question of a putative God, whose definition necessarily includes the freedom to choose, including creation and its aspects.)

One of our principles for rational analysis, assuming it is valid, is that evolution is not wasteful, especially for the complex capabilities it has driven. There is no more complex capability than the freedom of choice, so it should have a powerful evolutionary purpose.

What I came up with are two possibilities. I notice they also align nicely with the two basic urges of the Life Instinct — self-preservation and reproduction, which adds weight to their potential soundness.

3.1 Free Will as a necessity for survival in complex life forms

If a life form is simple, there may be only one healthy action for each circumstance. In a sense, the rules could be straightforward. Examples of these simple rules could be — for an amoeba: if the water is too acidic, move away; for a blue jay: if it is autumn, then cache some food for winter, else just eat; for a pet dog: if a stranger comes in, bark, else if master says ‘quiet’ be quiet; else welcome known person.

Humans, chimpanzees, orangutans, and perhaps some other advanced mammals such as other apes, dolphins and whales, have relatively complex brains. They have evolved to adapt to various ecosystems on the planet. Our minds may be dealing with three challenges through Free Will:

1. Large data volumes may be involved requiring a processing capacity more than their existing mental rules can handle in the time available for action. Although the brain will try to work out the best options, the difference in probability of success between them may be too small for a clear choice. For example —an undergrad has to decide between medicine and engineering, and the pros and cons are deadlocked. She decides on engineering and does well, in retrospect. We wouldn’t expect this complicated situation for a cow.
2. New data may be involved, with no specific rules to compute the options' probability, but the options may be apparent. For example — A human comes across a wire fence she must cross that looks unusual and could be electrified, but there are no signboards. She finds her choices to be — risk touching it, go back, or find a way around. She decides she will go around if she can and finds a gate with the electrification sign. The choice gets converted into memory and rule in this individual’s mind. A rabbit in the same situation simply tries to go through the fence and gets electrocuted.
3. Incomplete data may be available, so the mind cannot execute the rules entirely. For example — An office-goer is late and rushes to the platform, sees a train about to leave, doesn’t have time to check if it's the fast or slow train and identifies the options as — jump aboard or let it go. He lets it go and finds it was the fast train to his destination. His mind reduces the weightage in its ruleset for letting trains or other things go. A runaway dog would just get on the train.

3.2 Free Will as an advanced evolution mechanism

Beyond the utility of choice for individual self-preservation, there is the question of its workings for evolution through survival of the fittest. It may have developed to increase the possibilities beyond the variation produced in our genetic blueprints in each generation through reproduction. When some progeny went beyond instinctive rules, they may have survived preferentially. It would have increased the incidence gradually of these genetic varieties that possessed the ability to find alternatives and choose between them for the more challenging life situations. One of the best areas for free Will's operation would be our social choices, a powerful lever for our robustness and adaptability.

Within this process of increasing choice, there would be the further survival of those that showed higher intelligence, i.e., higher adaptability, by finding more alternatives and selecting the better ones for survival. It should be an ongoing process that continuously strengthens and increases Free Will’s scope.

4. Is Free Will an Illusion or Real?

What is happening when we choose? Are we actually doing it freely? Let us consider the arguments for and against our choices being under our control.

4.1 Is Free Will an Illusion?

It may be that our sense of being free to make choices in life is an illusion, with the underlying reality being that we are not genuinely exercising any freedom. Let’s consider the reasons why this could be the case.

1. The metaphysical argument

It is the most straightforward position one can take — all of existence is an illusion, so anything within it is an illusion, including Free Will.

2. The scientific argument

How can we have Free Will if the universe follows physical laws? It should be impossible. Beginning from the Big Bang, everything should be predetermined and out of our control, including what happens in our brains. All thoughts and mental states should be mechanistically predictable. At least, Newtonian Physics would lead to this conclusion.

When we kick away a stone, its movement must be continuously traceable in an unbroken chain back to the Big Bang that set everything in motion. It would not have moved without my foot moving it, I would not have moved my foot without a physical action in my brain, and that couldn’t have happened without an external force acting on it, and so on, back to the original energy and objects of the moment of creation. How can an action come out of nowhere? The thoughts in our minds are electrical impulses. They are the movement of matter as electrons. How can electrons start moving by themselves without any motivating force? If we somehow move electrons in our minds without a causative force, it is astonishing and miraculous. It is like we are all Gods. Imagine how much this idea is anathema to science. It may not yet have found the cause to make this most astounding capability pedestrian, but it stands its ground that Free Will is only an illusion.

(We will consider if Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics give us a way out of this enigma, in the section below on the possibility of Free Will being real.)

3. The religious argument

Some religions posit that all existence is an illusion. For example — Hinduism calls this illusion of reality and life Maya but urges us to follow the dictates of duty, which can be interpreted as making our choices as if they mean something. It goes on to show that trying to comprehend reality would only destroy us, so we should accept the illusion and go with it.

Implications for the Humanities

Oh, what a con it would be if nature has led us to believe we are free, but we are only automatons, after all. There would be no accountability to anyone else or ourselves, no responsibility. And how would we ever break free of the chains of our complete bondage to predetermined actions?

Despite our grave misgivings, we may never be able to prove that the freedom to choose is not an illusion. So, if we assume it for a moment, we will see the far-reaching consequences: We would not be responsible for our actions as they wouldn’t be our choices, just the appearance of being so, and we cannot be held accountable for things outside our control. Morality and ethics would consequently become illusory.

If one adopted this view strongly enough, one might start behaving differently, throwing any rules or caution to the wind, as they are not ‘our’ decisions anyway. ‘Anything goes’ could become the de facto mode of acting. And any harmful consequences for oneself or others could be dismissed as — ‘if it happened, it happened, it’s not my problem, I didn’t really do it’.

For the religious, it will weaken the concepts of God-given rules, reward and punishment, the after-life, and such beliefs that may be on the whole beneficial to humankind (although many millions have died due to religious beliefs).

Even the atheistic and rationalist section of humanity may become weaker in exercising many good behaviours for The Life Instinct if it starts believing we don’t have the freedom of choice.

4.2 Is Free Will Real?

We directly and strongly feel our internal ability to decide our thoughts, beliefs and actions. What are the arguments that it is indeed genuine freedom?

1. The metaphysical argument

If existence is real and material, Free Will cannot be illusory, whatever it may be, as it happens through matter in the minds of real, substantive life forms.

2. The evolutionary argument

Because the ability to choose thoughts, beliefs and actions has come about due to evolution, a proven process, Free Will as a product of the same must be real. And given its persistence and significant distribution, it is neither vestigial nor a random and temporary feature.

3. The scientific argument

There could be two arguments from the viewpoint of science, supporting Free Will's reality.

The first could come from modern physics theories, especially Quantum Mechanics. This area comprises several distinct topics, but the ones that seem most relevant at a high level are the Uncertainty Principle, Quantum Entanglement and Quantum Tunnelling. This book cannot go into the depths of these fascinating yet challenging areas. However, we can get their gist and examine their implications for Free Will. From the Theory of Uncertainty, we know we cannot know objects' locations and energies with 100 per cent certainty (gnawingly frustrating for essential science, which is all about certainty). From the Entanglement theory, we know that if the state of one object changes, the state of another object ‘entangled’ with it will also change instantly, although they are separated in space-time (like magical telepathy). We know that a particle or energy wave can go through an energy barrier from the Tunnelling theory (seems like nature cheating).

These seemingly esoteric theories have in common that they fundamentally run counter to classical, Newtonian mechanics. They are also counterintuitive to our typical understanding of how nature works. They are mind-bending, but they are proving themselves. Perhaps together, they can provide a basis for Free Will when scientists turn their attention to it. We may not understand reality very well yet. Still, it is entirely possible that as we know it better, the freedom of choice we find hard to accept from the viewpoint of classical physics could be explained ultimately by our science.

The second argument from science is one I have hypothesised and will leave for the next chapter.

4. The religious argument

In terms of sheer numeric strength, the number of people who believe in religion and our freedom to follow its moral teachings is the largest and makes a substantial case for the reality of Free Will. The argument comprises variations on a simple theme — God created the universe and humans, giving them the freedom to do their best and worst to themselves and others, and rules to keep things on the better side, which they can and should follow.

Implications for The Humanities

If we believe the freedom of choice is real, it reinforces our feeling of responsibility for our actions from secular or religious viewpoints.

But is having and using Free Will always a good thing? Individuals have been thinking, believing and doing many things over millennia. Have these choices always been good for the species? If we look at the decisions made by Hitler, Genghis Khan, or many modern-day despots and dictators, have they had a net positive impact on the species' survival?

Let us take even everyday examples. What about the decisions taken by individuals and organisations to create and use plastic? Or the thousands of other choices that are probably destroying the habitability of the planet itself for us? Are these not acts of Free Will? Could Free Will be just as bad as it is good, maybe worse?

Perhaps it is better to have less choice. Maybe the species has grown too intelligent and controlling. The poor choices we have made as a species is the stuff of legend. Less intelligent creatures such as tigers, horses and plants without our advanced brains, cognition and choice, could better sustain themselves and all forms of life in a delicate balance.

But this could be simplistic in the big picture, for we have survived and thrived. And even though our self-aware exercise of choices have been poor and has brought us to the brink of nuclear and ecological disaster, we may have begun to see the light.

5. The Origin of Free Will

We have postulated earlier that our ability to make choices arose from evolution. Here, we will consider two aspects of it a little further.

5.1 Life Instinct and Free Will

The innate urges of the Life Instinct that we explored in chapter 4 are behind what we have come to be as a species. It motivates a constant movement towards higher survivability and adaptability. If we are by now endowed with the facility of self-perception that allows us to observe and finely control ourselves and our environment, it has originated nowhere else than this Life Instinct, our primal ingrained drive for self-preservation and reproduction.

5.2 Self-awareness and Free Will

For choosing, there needs to be a chooser. That is a subject who acts. If the human mind could not look at its body as a separate entity, it would not give rise to a mental agent for the act of choosing. Whether the choice is free or constrained is another matter. But without self-awareness, neither would options be distinguished nor the ability to ask questions about them.

Did the evolution of self-awareness and Free Will go hand-in-hand? What other purposes can self-awareness have? There will be little utility if the differentiation of an object by us is not closely followed by our identification of its relationships and related events in the past, present and future. And we know evolution through survival of the fittest would not tolerate the profligacy of partial and wasteful developments. It seems a straightforward conclusion that the prime reason for self-awareness is to allow self-control and self-management.

Therefore, besides the essential Life Instinct, the self-awareness that developed from it is also necessary for the capability of Free Will.

The areas of our brains that provide self-awareness and make analysed decisions would work closely together. Indeed, they are parts of the same advanced site of the neocortex.

There could be other capabilities that are related to freedom of choice. But this brief analysis suffices our purpose.

Conclusions

How shall we conclude? Let us apply three principles — consistency with earlier conclusions or positions, aligning with the Life Instinct and not going against our directly experienced evidence.

By the first principle, as we have assumed that the universe does exist and is not an illusion, it would behove us to believe Free Will is real.

By the second, as we have concluded that Life Instinct exists, and its impulses for self-preservation and reproduction develop into Free Will, it would lead us to believe the latter is real.

By the third principle, we feel every day, and with nary a doubt, that we are free and make choices of thought, belief, and action. So, this, too, leads to the conclusion that Free Will is real.

What does the reality of Free Will mean for us? There are two ways we can look at it.

The cynical and sceptical view would be that we have grown too powerful for our own good, with self-awareness, speech and the freedom of choice. We have misused these capabilities, been irresponsible and done irreversible harm to ourselves and our world.

Or we can take the optimistic view that Free Will lifts us out of blind living and reproduction and empowers us over nature in a substantial upward lift. One could say it makes us special, but we don’t need to get mystical or religious about it. We can simply and respectfully appreciate our significant abilities and enjoy them.

But with it comes responsibility. With Free Will, we know we can change ourselves. We don’t have to stay how we are, within our lifetime and across generations. And we must change, for we are in the early stages of our powers, still immature. Attitude is behaviour, but behaviour can become attitude too. Free Will allows us to change both.

We have no excuse to not become the happiest living beings in the universe, within ourselves and with all other life forms.

We will choose the positive view, for we are free to do so.

© 2020 Shashidhar Sastry. All rights reserved.

(As each chapter of the book is published, its link is updated in the ToC below.)

Table of Contents

Part I Metaphysics of The Life Instinct

Part II Philosophy of The Life Instinct

Part III The Life Instinct and The Future

Published By Shashidhar Sastry

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