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Do we have free will or is our actions fundamentally predetermined external to our will?
This is one of the most controversial questions that have riddled numerous philosophers since the
beginning of time. The discussion between free will and determinism is complex; both
arguments engage our minds to truly dissect ones action whether we are genuinely free or
predestined.
There are proponents of the belief that man is predetermined and freedom is merely an
illusion. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, is not technically a philosopher, although
his contribution in the field of psychology is consistent with the principle that man is
predetermined. For Sigmund Freud, all our actions and decisions is a product of both our
subconscious and conscious mind1. Sometimes the manner in which we may decisions is in the
foreground of our mind; it is apparent and clear to the individual thinker. At other times, our
subconscious aspect of our mind dictates our decisions, and the influence of our subconscious
occasionally becomes noticeable in so-called Freudian slips: verbal or memory mistakes that are
believed to be linked to the unconscious mind.2 This idea that man is determined in such a way
that every action which he takes in his life can be explained with some sort of mental process
going on his brain is not limited to Freuds understanding alone. In fact, the field of psychology
However, a different insight was had by neurologist Viktor Frankl as to human freedom.
He was one of those unfortunate enough to suffer inside one of the concentration camps during
1 http://www.iep.utm.edu/freud/#H5
concentration camp. In his work Mans Search for Meaning, Vikot Frankl says:
We, who lived in concentration camps, can remember the men who walked
through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have
been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a
man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose ones attitudes in any
During his time in the concentration camps, Frankl observed to groups of people. The first set are
those who slowly wither away, with eyes becoming listless and hopeless who die from sheer
starvation, sickness and depression. The second set are those who have chosen to cling to hope,
have chosen to share food and console their fellow prisoners. The second set of people is the
focus of Viktor Frankls study because they defied the standards of psychology. They have
remained hopeful that they will overcome their trial despite being in a situation that is devoid of
hope. The entrance of the death camp in Auschwitz were the gates of Hell for the victims of the
Holocaust, and as in Dante Alighieris Divine Comedy, hell is where all hope is abandoned. Yet
somehow, there were people in these concentration camps that have hope. This is what Viktor
Frankl attributes to the inherent freedom inside a person: a person has the freedom to determine
the meaning of his life. The person is not a product of his subconscious or conscious. He is not a
mere product of the circumstances and the environment around him. Human freedom cannot be
Jean Paul Sartre also discusses the concept of facticity and freedom. When we say
facticity, this refers to some of the basic truths that the human being is thrown in from the
moment he is born into this world. The place we are born in, the body we are born in, our
parents, these are all facticities that the human being cannot change. For example, a person can
be born with a congenital heart disease. He may undergo treatment and may eventually get
better, but the fact does not change: he is born with a birth defect. However, despite the different
facticities that converge into the individual human being, Sartre says that the human being has
the capacity to transcend these things. These circumstances do not determine us. The human
being is not a thing crushed into its own essence. A rock will remain a rock, an orange tree will
bear orange fruit but the human being is something entirely different: He is free to choose
different possibilities in his life. He has the freedom to choose the direction and meaning of his
life. To continue with the earlier example, a person who is born with a birth defect can choose to
hand, he can transcend his own situation, he can say to himself: My life is meaningful, my life is
worth living and nothing in the world can take away the fact that I value my life.
I submit that there is free will rather than determinism. Man is not an object but rather a
subject. He is not bound by the circumstances that he is in but he is entirely free to project
towards his future and he is free to give meaning to his various facticities that surround him.
Aside from what Sartre has discussed, we can see this exercise of freedom of meaning in our
common human experience. We hear of people having everything and yet fail to see the joy in
their possession. We hear of people having little in life and yet engage with life with much
energy and vibrancy, just as how the prisoners of the concentration camp chose to cling to hope.
Free will cannot be taken from us and it is a powerful aspect of a persons life in the sense that it
is the person alone who sets the tone for his life.