Mae DesTroismaisons
The Meaning of Freedom
February 1, 2014
Professor Randall Harp
When I pick a song to listen to, like “Master of Puppets” for instance, I have a certain phenomenological sensation that I acted of my own free will. That is, it seems like I freely chose “Master of Puppets” over any and all alternatives and could have done otherwise if I had wanted to. It was up to me what song to listen to, and I could have chosen a different song, or no song at all, couldn’t I have? It appears as though I am in control of my actions, and I certainly do not feel like the Master of Puppets is pulling my strings (Metallica, 1986).
There are some functions we perform unconsciously, like blinking and breathing, but these are not intentional actions; they are simply instinctual behaviors. The libertarian argument for the existence of free will is based on the sensation of liberty that we experience while acting—the feeling that we are the conscious authors of our thoughts and deeds—which leads us to believe that we ultimately decide what we do. It is hard to understand the felt experience of free will in terms of science and logic, and libertarians often take the stand that there is some metaphysical entity within us (e.g. a soul) that is “the vehicle for feely acting wills” (Harris 15-16).
In Free Will, Sam Harris asserts, “libertarians imagine that human agency must magically rise above the plane of physical causation” (16). In his argument against libertarianism, he notes that human thoughts and actions are caused by “unconscious neural events” that are also “determined by prior causes of which we are subjectively unaware” (16). Although it may feel like it, we are not “the conscious source of our thoughts and actions” (17). In other words, free will is an illusion. Our wills are the result of nature and nurture combined. As Harris points out, “I cannot determine my wants, or decide which will be effective, in advance. My mental life is simply given to me by the cosmos” (19). So, why didn’t I choose to listen to The Kinks instead of Metallica? It simply didn’t occur to me. How could I have been “free to do that which [did] not occur to me to do?” (19). Perhaps I am a puppet after all.
To take this idea one step further, Harris claims later on in his argument, “The illusion of free will is itself an illusion.” Upon close inspection of our experiences and of “what is like to be us”, our sensation of liberty diminishes and we realize that “we do not feel as free as we think we do” because our intentions and thoughts (our wills) just simply come in to being inside our minds (64). For our wills to be free, we would need to have control over virtually every aspect of our lives, including our own biology and the environments in which we were raised.
In 1984, George Orwell wrote, “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” This quote applies to the free will question as follows: I cannot determine my own thoughts and actions any more than I determined the Big Bang. Because I lack control over things that have occurred in the past, I in turn have no control over things occurring in the present; therefore, I cannot control the future. Despite any feelings of agency we may experience, our life-choices are all links in a magnificent chain-reaction. The question is, who is the Master of Puppets?
Works Cited
Harris, Sam. Free will. New York: Free Press, 2012. Print.
Metallica. “Master of Puppets.” Master of Puppets. 1986. Compact disc.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York, N.Y.: Signet Classic, 1977. Print.
The Meaning of Freedom
February 1, 2014
Professor Randall Harp
When I pick a song to listen to, like “Master of Puppets” for instance, I have a certain phenomenological sensation that I acted of my own free will. That is, it seems like I freely chose “Master of Puppets” over any and all alternatives and could have done otherwise if I had wanted to. It was up to me what song to listen to, and I could have chosen a different song, or no song at all, couldn’t I have? It appears as though I am in control of my actions, and I certainly do not feel like the Master of Puppets is pulling my strings (Metallica, 1986).
There are some functions we perform unconsciously, like blinking and breathing, but these are not intentional actions; they are simply instinctual behaviors. The libertarian argument for the existence of free will is based on the sensation of liberty that we experience while acting—the feeling that we are the conscious authors of our thoughts and deeds—which leads us to believe that we ultimately decide what we do. It is hard to understand the felt experience of free will in terms of science and logic, and libertarians often take the stand that there is some metaphysical entity within us (e.g. a soul) that is “the vehicle for feely acting wills” (Harris 15-16).
In Free Will, Sam Harris asserts, “libertarians imagine that human agency must magically rise above the plane of physical causation” (16). In his argument against libertarianism, he notes that human thoughts and actions are caused by “unconscious neural events” that are also “determined by prior causes of which we are subjectively unaware” (16). Although it may feel like it, we are not “the conscious source of our thoughts and actions” (17). In other words, free will is an illusion. Our wills are the result of nature and nurture combined. As Harris points out, “I cannot determine my wants, or decide which will be effective, in advance. My mental life is simply given to me by the cosmos” (19). So, why didn’t I choose to listen to The Kinks instead of Metallica? It simply didn’t occur to me. How could I have been “free to do that which [did] not occur to me to do?” (19). Perhaps I am a puppet after all.
To take this idea one step further, Harris claims later on in his argument, “The illusion of free will is itself an illusion.” Upon close inspection of our experiences and of “what is like to be us”, our sensation of liberty diminishes and we realize that “we do not feel as free as we think we do” because our intentions and thoughts (our wills) just simply come in to being inside our minds (64). For our wills to be free, we would need to have control over virtually every aspect of our lives, including our own biology and the environments in which we were raised.
In 1984, George Orwell wrote, “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” This quote applies to the free will question as follows: I cannot determine my own thoughts and actions any more than I determined the Big Bang. Because I lack control over things that have occurred in the past, I in turn have no control over things occurring in the present; therefore, I cannot control the future. Despite any feelings of agency we may experience, our life-choices are all links in a magnificent chain-reaction. The question is, who is the Master of Puppets?
Works Cited
Harris, Sam. Free will. New York: Free Press, 2012. Print.
Metallica. “Master of Puppets.” Master of Puppets. 1986. Compact disc.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York, N.Y.: Signet Classic, 1977. Print.