PHIL S-4: INTRO.

TO PHILOSOPHY PAPER TOPIC II:

- THE FREE WILL DILEMMA POLINA EDELEVA

People of every culture have experienced a problem with two approaches to

life: whether a) all is predetermined or b) we can, in some way, change the course of events with the sheer force of our will, our desires, our tears and fixed mistakes. All known cultures have asked themselves this question, even certain deities were linked to it. For example, from what we know about the traditions and history of ancient Rome today, the Romans believed in a God who stood above Jupiter- an unnamed deity who was simply called Unknown. The ancient Greeks also believed in a deity more potent than Zeus, Lord of Olympus; he was called Zeus-Zen. Aeschylus described him as a deity that controls destiny. In Greek drama, a reflection of the Eleusinian mysteries, this deity is often referred to as the mysterious principle of fate that manages all creation. Let us recall, for example, "Prometheus Bound", a famous play by Aeschylus. When Prometheus steals Fire Light and Reason for the benefit of all people, Zeus punishes him by binding him with chains to a rock on the mountain of Caucasus, and each day an eagle arrives to eat his liver. His liver grows back again and again and thus, through the pain and suffering, a great sacrifice to Prometheus love of humans is made on a daily basis. And when the crucified Titan asks: "Why are you doing this to me?" a mysterious voice from distant heights, over and above the Olympus of Zeus, replies: "because thats what the fate wants, because it's fate... We see the same thing in the pantheons of Ancient America and Ancient China: there is always a mention of some kind of unnamed supreme deity without attributes that represents the inexorable Fate. So is there a Fate, implacable and intransigent? Is there any way to live in harmony with this Fate? Or does Fate not exist, leaving only free will with which we create our own destiny? It is very difficult to answer these questions because you can always give examples in favor of both approaches.

Not too long ago a book called "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan" was found in England. A little-known writer wrote it in 1898. In this book the author tells the fictional story of a huge liner whose dimensions exceeded those of all the ships of the era and weighed about 60000 tons. It was called the Titan. Going into its first commemorative voyage from England to New York, this ship took aboard more than 2000 people. The day before their expected arrival to its port of destination the ship collided with an iceberg and sank. All alarms or requests for help that were sent immediately after the accident were ignored and no one came to the rescue so strong was the universal belief that the ship was invulnerable. As a result, many people lost their lives- it was described as the most serious accident in the history of navigation. Over 20 years after the release of the book the fictional tragedy described took place in reality as the infamous sinking of the Titanic. How can this be explained? How could this unknown writer have known about the accident that had yet to happen? And furthermore, how is it that events that are yet to come sometimes manifest themselves to people in a symbolic form? Herodotus, the Greek philosopher, tells the story of a ruler who ordered to remove all carts from his Kingdom, including any neighboring State-drawn vehicles from across the borders of his lands. A prophet had predicted that his death would be caused by a carriage. After a rebellion broke out in the Kingdom, one of the rebels killed the ruler by striking him in the heart with a sword- the last thing the ruler saw before dying was a symbol of the King's Carriage House engraved on handle of the sword, thus fulfilling the prophecy. All of these stories told by different people lead us to believe that there is a destiny, or an inexorable Fate, that holds power over everyone and everything. In each of us lives a quiet voice, the voice of conscience, which they call the

Voice of Nadi in the Himalayas; it directs us, explains to us what we should do and helps us sort out whether what weve already done is good or bad. However, we usually don't hear it, mostly because we do not have a habit of paying attention to it. We perceive its sound as the hum of a waterfall or winds whisper, so it passes by us and remains unnoticed. We forget that this is the voice of our higher self, the most sacred and mysterious something that we have- this inner voice that tells us what our path is. So, is there any freedom of choice? Unfortunately, in the materialistic world we live in, people have developed a mutually exclusive way of thinking in the worst sense of the word for us, things are either black or white, good or bad. I say "unfortunately" not because I am against the axioms or against any rating system, but because something is not always automatically black if it is not white, and vice versa. Getting involved in this dialectic, created from extremes and absolute claims, makes you susceptible to falling into the trap of dogmatism in its most oppressive sense. Examining and explaining everything that happens in nature is dangerous, since such an approach will sooner or later lead us to many errors and clashes not only with other people, but also with ourselves: we will forever tear ourselves up and suffer because we will always have to choose between two extremes. In fact, this choice is often false, artificial and illusory, for it is the fruit of our imagination. So do we have the freedom of choice or is there a Fate that controls everything? Why not assume that there are both? Why cant both concepts co-exist, provided that we cease to consider the two as mutually exclusive, absolute extremes? In our world there are no absolute values, it all depends on to whom or what we are comparing the thing that we are evaluating. So, everything has a fate. Everything manifested at this stage in evolution has

a spark of consciousness, in which the reason it exists is reflected. In fact, fate is only a starting point from which we start new beginnings that could take us to places that we could have never even dreamt of. We all strive to find our own fate. The further we progress, the more we realize that every fate has the metaphysical side- far beyond our physical body and physical world there exists a mysterious something that constantly calls on us, directing all our steps like a father leading his son along a path. But all this can be combined perfectly with freedom of choice, which we also have to start seeing as not something absolute, but rather as something more or less relative. Inside the great meta-historical movement along the path of evolution we can create our own story, and we are responsible for what we create and everything we do. For while it is true that everything repeats and moves back to square one, nothing can ever go back to being what and how it was before: what is happening now, in this moment, is unique and inimitable. Nothing can go back or repeat itself in the same form as before and, in a way, it feels as if it has never even existed. Every moment is valuable and sacred precisely because of what we do while it lasts, because of what we do here and now, because this exact moment will never manifest itself again. From that we can assume that we are responsible for what happens to us in every moment, for trying again and not giving up or falling down. For he who believes in the absolute inevitability of fate allows himself to float along life and risks losing everything. Every person is given a chance, an opportunity to walk the road at their own pace and according to their own abilities; but whatever their rhythm and ability is, they must move forward, constantly trying to improve themselves. So, lets say the claim that I could, for instance, have had yoghurt instead of a slice of pizza is true. I have exerted free will while consciously choosing the

unhealthy, fattening slice of pizza over the healthier yoghurt. There had to be something, however, that put me in that situation of having to make a choice in the first place- some chain of events that came to a conclusion with me having to exert my free will. Maybe the uncontrollable circumstances that day have made me more susceptible to the temptation offered by comfort food, maybe someone has offhandedly mentioned pizza on the street and Ive unconsciously overheard it- I will never know, since those circumstances have been put in my way by some supreme force unknown to me or any other living person. The true philosopher, he who truly seeks the truth, must get used to walking hand in hand with mysteries. He cannot always explain everything that occurs and must accept some things that he cannot understand, since the desire to understand everything, to know everything, to express everything in words and figures is a sign of vanity. People of the 19th century were deeply misguided when they said, "What else is there to invent?" after inventing the first locomotives, the first prototypes of cars that went at an average speed of 20 km/hour. They had believed that everything had already been invented, but as much as remained to be invented after them will remain to invent after us, since the world never stops. Every moment in the past is as unique as one in the future. So many mysteries are yet to be solved, so many definitions are yet to be given, so many things are yet to be discovered, and while it is important to try to solve these mysteries of life, one should remember to live the life one was granted by Fate and try to choose wisely between all of the possibilities offered by this unexplainable, inexorable force.