Chatting with a friend about Existentialism, Buddhist Ethics, Determinism, Free Will (because that’s the kind of nerds we are).
Today’s position on determinism / free will:
I come from a strongly evolutionary perspective, and a strongly materialist perspective. Should be logically hemmed into determinism.
I also study ethics and attempt to cultivate (aka, re-wire my neural pathways towards) a more metta-ful, less reactive being-in-the-world. Sounds a lot like free will.
But I’ve never believed in “free” will. To my understanding and experience, I, and those I observe around me, are profoundly determined creatures. I cannot simply “decide” to do something differently. Or I would have decided to do things differently a long time ago. A nautical metaphor: I cannot control the waves, I cannot control the winds, I did not build this boat, it doesn’t have breaks. But I do have a sail and I do have a rudder. It takes time to learn how to use these things, but it does seem possible to direct, to some extent, the trajectory of this little boat. I refer to this as having “some agency”, not free will.
Though I cannot argue for it logically, practically I find it most useful to think and behave as though this agency exists for my person. I feel “happier”, am more creative, more courageous believing myself to have at least a little bit of rudder control. This, embedded in the stoic maxim to note what phenomena lie within my sphere of control and what phenomena lie outside my sphere of control. The former, I strive to steer towards greater skillfulness, less harm, greater benefit. The latter, I strive to hold with equanimity.
Conversely, yet still practically, I find it most useful to assume that others are acting from a more determined position. I tend to be less reactive, less dogmatic, more equanimous, when I consider the massive power of inertia, of evolutionary pressure, of conditions, on the other being before me.
As Richard Dawkins points out, if my car breaks down, I don’t (usually) yell at it, pout at it or, heaven forbid, behave in a passive-aggressive manner towards it. I try to understand the conditions that led to the break down and I engage energy to amend those conditions. Why would I not extend the same consideration towards a living being?
So there it is, as of today, my take on determinism / free will. My hunch is there is something fundamental that we don’t understand about our dazein/being-in-the-world which is causing the confusion. I hope this has something to do with complexity theory… but it’s in the “I dunno” bucket for now.
I’m lucky for being trained by Stephen Batchelor and John Peacock to be willing to embrace apparently opposing viewpoints… “These and those are words of the living God.”
Dharma PhD 