One of the peer-graded assignments I had to do was to write about the topic of FREE WILL with the prompt: Do people have free will or is it an illusion? Is neuroeconomics the death of free will? The word limit was 500 so this is it. I hope you like it and feel free to leave a comment and share it with other people.
These views are my own. No copyright infringement. Sources are cited at the end of the essay.
We are made
to believe that for those of us who live in a democracy we have such freedoms
as freedom of speech or freedom of
religion to name a few but the real question to discuss here is whether or not
we have free will.
When I
started thinking how to approach this question I thought of more than one
perspective to consider it from. Two of these will be taken into account: the
religious/moral perspective and the psychological perspective.
To begin
with, some people who believe in God and Catholicism have no second thoughts
when stating “God gave you FREE WILL” meaning, in my opinion, that you are free
to choose what you want to do. Nonetheless, digging deeper into this notion can
lead to further inquiries such as: how free any individual can be to choose
what they want to do without feeling guilty, remorseful or selfish in religious
terms right? There is plenty to be said about this concept in religion but I
will leave you with this excerpt I took from Wikipedia discussing the concept
of FREE WILL in the Roman Catholic Church:
The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church
asserts that "Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will".[1] It
goes on to say that "God created man a rational being, conferring on him
the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. God
willed that man should be 'left in the hand of his own counsel,' so that he
might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed
perfection by cleaving to him.""[2]
Secondly, psychology
being a science which studies people and their behaviours brings a new light to religion not
being the only field capable of explaining choices. Considering this matter,
there are professionals in the field who try to explain the way in which the
brain functions when faced with a decision to make. Doctor Danil Razeev made a
compelling argument discussing this topic. This is his lecture on it: "Can Neuroscience Measure Free Will?".
Another opinion on the subject matter wrote an editorial on the web and this is
an excerpt I found to be quite interesting:
“How can a person make self-determined choices,
make sense of the world, and even self-actualize when neuroscientific evidence
seems to indicate that our brains are making decisions before we even realize
it? Are we claiming responsibility for events that have little or nothing to do
with conscious intention?” [3]
All things
being considered, it is my personal opinion that the notion of free will is
subjective to the person and the place where they live, the governments they
have and the desire each of them have to do what they feel is right for them as
long as it does not forfeit another individual’s right to do and act the same
way.
Citations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will_in_theology
“Roman Catholic” third paragraph , end of quotation 34
[2] ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will_in_theology
“Roman Catholic” third paragraph , end of quotation 34
[3]
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/proceed-your-own-risk/201311/do-we-have-free-will
Paragraph 10 - Editorial written by Seth Schwartz Ph.D.