The Free Will

10217 이세연

Do humans have free will or are our decisions entirely products of chemistry, physics and genetics? Is there a difference between the brain and the mind? Furthermore, What does it actually mean to be human?

In the outer world, we are all very aware of standard cause and effect that applies to just about everything. But considering the events in our internal world, we know so little about ourselves. As an uncovered area of study, it is interesting to think about what brings about our thoughts. Some of our thoughts are indeed caused by external factors such as the five senses: auditory, tactile, olfactory, visual, and gustatory. For example, if we touch something hot without noticing it, right at the moment, we would flinch and move away from it. We do not contemplate whether to move away from that hot object; rather we do so involuntarily just because our brain has ordered us to do so. In fact, we have no time to give ourselves process of thinking after touching the hot material. Right at the split second of the moment, our brain commands our body to move away. In other words, we did not choose to move our hands away, our brains did. However, there are also times when we engage in logical reasoning and self-control to make important choices. Is this enough to prove that we do live under our free will?

This also brings up some questions. In Psychology class, we learn that there is some rare illness that prevents people from feeling pain. In this case, if a person with this symptom touches a hot substance, even boiling water, he or she won’t feel any pain. Here, she has control over her body and hands so that whenever she wants to put her hands on or off the material she can do so. Now, does this mean she has free will?

The answer: we do not know. Maybe we can never figure it out. First of all, we do not have a clear definition of “free will.” It may mean the capability to move however the person wants to move. It can also be referred to as the capability to do whatever the person wants to do. According to Merriam-Webster, “free will” is defined as the ability to choose how to act(voluntary choice or decision) and the ability to make choices that are not controlled by fate or God(freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention).

Using the first definition, do people have the ability to choose how to act? I would say, yes. Although the brain tells us what and how we should manage things, brain is still one part of a human-being. Even if the brain is in control of the decision-making, as a whole, it is us, who are making the decision because simply, we comprise brain. Furthermore, brain is not only an organ inside the human body. It is the command center of human-beings. I agree that brains control human bodies. However, I think it is wrong to say brains have control over human-beings because we, ourselves, are in the brain. The soul, we think of, is all inside the brain. All the silent whispers inside your mind while you are reading are done inside the brain. This tells us that brain and human-beings are not separate entities. Still, this is very confusing so that the session we had with the members of Logic De Cliche was extremely challenging.

During the tough discussion, 헌상 said that we feel happy when we consume chicken and that proves that we have the free will to pursue happiness that eventually leads to making decisions like eating chicken later on. However, others argued that this is only the manipulation of cells constituting our body and the memory they have of secreting endorphins when greeting chicken. This also is the argument between the mind and thoughts versus the brain and chemistry. I wonder if people being 이과 or 문과 has any effect on their claims in this argument. Maybe literary people would be more inclined to think towards their thoughts and inner worlds while scientific people may tend to focus on the structure of the brain and the mechanisms. Still, either way, the debate provides ample amount of time to think about ourselves and our true identities.

This debate has not yet come to an end, which is absolutely normal regarding that this was a topic of no answer in the first place. Even amongst scholars, this elusive topic is yet uncovered. For now, advancement in technology and knowledge seems like the only key to this unsolved mystery. If people have free will to solve this mystery, maybe we should look forward to the answer this question.