Are we free?
I may want to eat some cookies (first-order desire) now, but
I also may not want this (second-order desire) due to reasons related to my being
health-conscious. My will is free only if I can make any of my first-order desires
the one upon which I act.
We feel we choose, but we don’t. As per the science of conscious intention, free will is illusion.
Schopenhauer and Einstein both said that a human can very well do what he
wants, but cannot will what he wants.
Nietzsche, in On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), blamed
customary morality for limiting humanity by making our actions predictable. He
argues that it’s possible for a person of autonomy to exist beyond customary
morality. He talks about a concept known as sovereign individual, describing
him as ‘the ripest fruit on its tree, like one to itself, having freed itself
from the morality of custom, an autonomous, supra-ethical individual’.
In order to be a sovereign individual, Nietzsche said, it is
necessary to give style to one’s character. Doing that is possible by examining
our weaknesses and strengths and then put them into a concrete and artistic
plan in which they appear as art and reason, and in which even weaknesses please the
eyes.
By following only the herd morality, one will never be able
to develop a strong will. One must rise above herd mentality - by dominating
one’s lower desires and bringing them entirely in balance with one’s will - to
become a creator of oneself. Achieving sovereignty as an individual is an
excruciating job.
Although Nietzsche suggested that becoming a sovereign and
free self is possible, neurologists have plenty of reasons to be sceptical
about philosophical ideas concerning free will. The concept of free will, along
with Nietzsche’s sovereign individual, finds no support in science, but remains
an important ideal. Free will may be an illusion, but belief in it can be
healthy, given that we are aware of the fact that there are various factors influencing
our behaviour subconsciously.
In an interview with the Paris Review, Isaac
Bashevis Singer once said, ‘the greatest gift which humanity has received is
free choice. It is true that we are limited in our use of free choice. But the
little free choice we have is such a great gift and is potentially worth so
much that for this itself, life is worthwhile living.’
