Metaphysical Musings #5 — Free Will, Happiness & Perception
The proposition that free-will exists has been acknowledged for long enough (from the time of stoicism). A lot of deliberation has already gone into this topic with people taking three broad ideological stances based on which they may be liberatarians (believe in free will and advocate nondeterminism), the compatibilists (believe free will and determinism can coexist) and the determinists. While I do side with the liberatarians, but, we could keep the debate aside for later [Quantum mechanics guys, don’t come at me, I don’t know enough QM]. In this musing, I aim to borrow the concept of free will and use it to demonstrate the correlation this has with happiness. This correlation comes into play when we bring in the pertinence of perception in this case.
If I consider the free will in the non-deterministic sense, it would mean that inspite of having ALL knowledge, I will still not be able to perfectly forecast the future. Or, this leaves some leeway for the concept of free will to feature. But, this also allows us to appreciate that there is always some level of precariousness that is associated with the result of our decision.
Under this permise, one can trivially develop an antipathetic perception by over-estimating the importance of the extrinsic factors that cause deviations in the results. This would lead to unnecessary brooding and misery. Or, one could embrace this uncertainty by simply considering the fact that deviations from expected results are not bound to lead to degradation.
Even if we consider that things are deterministic, knowing everything down until the micro-level is basically impossible (in the practical sense). Therefore, the uncertainty argument holds.
Whether or not free choice exists, acceptance of the uncertainities in life (which may be present to lack of complete understanding or may be really non-deterministic) would help one feel more powerful in their life as it would enable them to think that they’re capable of control (to some extent). This will allow one to make sure they do not vacillate excessively and stay motivated.
