Free Will, Consciousness, and Agency?
In recent ‘post-modern’ literature there is a full academic invasion into the psychological territory of ‘free will.” Their arguments try to dismantle that freedom to choose one’s action is not feasible. Everything is determined – the current cause is due to the previous effect which is related to the previous cause, right back in time. We are just manifesting what has been chosen before.
I find this thesis absurd and frightening. In one stroke it blows out reponsibility, the ability, the choice of response in any situation. It abolishes Victor Frankl’s astonishing observation in the depths of the brutal Nazi concentration camps – that everything can be taken from a human, except the freedom to choose one’s response in any situation. Even a loaded gun to your head. Even how you respond to a heinous sexual assault or public shaming. You can choose, by free will, to be a victim or a survivor.
If there is no free will, then why bother to heal a fractured world. Why bother to protect a liberal democracy; why bother to ensure a justice system; life long learning; or a embark on a psychotherapeutic process? The legal term, dolus eventualis, is core to the effectiveness of the judicial system: when deciding to proceed with a criminal activity, the perpetrator must be aware of the eventual consequence (and be prepared to face the consequential punishment.)
You have free choice as long as you are conscious and of sound mind. If not, society will determine that you are mentally incapacitated, and there are severe consequences to that diagnosis. All choices have consequences. Aim to be on the right side of decision-making. My deep interest for cognitive therapy is to identify thought distortions, and provide an appropriate remedy. Coders spy out bugs in the software, correct or patch, the code. That there is “no free will” is a premier league cognitive distortion. Recognise its nonsense and remedy, with strong conviction.
It is your free choice to do so.
Lesson). Your greatest freedom is your deliberate choice of response in any situation.
Jonathan D Moch 0784398889
If I write a comment, surely I have free choice.