FREE-WILL VS (PRE)DETERMINISM

Hello Guys!

Today We have a special blog-post from Olamide Oladeji who is an extremely interesting fellow.

Today is his birthday and he has agreed to be featured on the blog!

Happy Birthday Olamide!!!

I am not in the strict sense a philosopher, neither am I one who often dabbles into the cerebral ventures undertaken by  those men of times past; Aristotle, Leibniz , Kant, to name a few. 

However, I believe as young individuals, there are times we cannot but ruminate along philosophical lines, on issues we feel contribute to our very essence. It was during one of such musings, that the subject of free-will and determinism arose in my mind.

I was so deep in my thoughts that afternoon, that when I finally awoke from my reverie, I felt as though I had spent a day, thinking.  What were my thoughts exactly, you say? To understand what I sought to answer, ask yourselves; that food you are eating, or your reading this article, are those actions, products of some metaphysical, supernatural  events long before you were born? 

Or are they mere contrivances of carefully thought-out or even whimsical decisions of your free mind? These thought- provoking questions are what I want you all to answer after reading this.

As surely as there are two sides to every coin (that is well-minted of course), please consider both sides of the argument. 1st stop is Free-will. As we all know, asserting that man is free-willed is asserting that man has choices in his decisions; he may choose to be good, he may choose to be bad. He may choose to obey, he may choose otherwise. 

However, in discussing free-will and choices, one must note that in making whatever choices, man is – at the risk of begging the question – indeed, free?  He is not compelled to obey or disobey by any force or forces, unless he deems fit for external consultation. 

Free-will is best-explained by the quote “I make my own destiny”. 

If this is one of the maxims you live by then, my friend, you are a “free-willer”. Some of you proponents of free-will believe a man is what he is in life as a result of choices he makes and sometimes chance i.e. luck. I believe the argument is quite sound, but only superficially, as another look at its tenets exposes some flaws, as we shall see.

 In my opinion, many a free-will proponent often counters himself by following a religion. This is because most religions of the world clearly state that the supreme being of God knows every man’s future.

 Take Christianity for example, in the Holy Books of the Old testament,  God tells us that before he forms us he knows us. There are several examples of prophecies both in every religion and throughout the ages. I mention prophecies because the very definition of prophecy contradicts free-will.

 A prophecy of greatness into a man’s life means that the man is no longer free from the choice of greatness or commonality. Some prophecies invoke elements of free-will by stating clauses of their fulfillment or otherwise. In the end  this is still predeterminism because after satisfying fulfillment conditions, a man’s choice of being great or not does not exist; he MUST achieve greatness. Thus, if you claim to “make your destiny”, you shouldn’t be religious.

The other side of the coin is determinism,or specificwise, predeterminism, which, from its name, means believing that a man’s decisions in life have been decided by supernatural force(s) long before his birth. The supernatural force(s) earlier mentioned is usually God; it may also be the Fates, depending on the nature of one’s belief. 

This line of argument is evidently supported by religion, i.e. we have a future known by God and everything we will be is known by God. You are a determinist if you readily say or accept the statement “Que sera sera”. This line of argument certainly evoked some questions in my mind as I believe it is not in itself flawless.

Questions raised by determinism often border on ethical or moral grounds. For instance, a criminal may claim his committing a crime is predetermined and thus, he has no choice in the matter.

 If a gambler tears up a lottery ticket a week before it hits the jackpot; we say “he wasn’t meant to win it”, yet if a criminal lays his crime on the devil, crying “It was the work of the devil”, we rebuke him that he surely had a choice in the matter.

 Predeterminism also raises questions on the salient issues of good and evil, heaven and hell. We ask ourselves; ‘is it written or not?’ ‘Are people destined to go to heaven?’ ‘Was that newborn’s death before baptism in a bomb blast predetermined? Or was it chance (free-will)?’ ‘Was Adam destined to fall?’

 ‘Was subsidy destined to be removed, and if yes, why do we bother taking a stand?’

 It seems no matter the side we take on this argument, logic fails us. Maybe some questions are not meant to be answered, or are they?

Most people try to reach a sort of compromise between free-will and determinism, explaining they are in-between. Some others state that when it comes to choice and free-will, there are no  in-betweens, you are either free or not, it is either your choice or not.

 As for me, I believe in predeterminism but that at some point God gives us a choice to follow his path for us or not to. It conflicts with reasoning but then again, what we deem wise and logical may be foolish in His sight. What is your opinion?