I need to clarify up front that to have a will one must have consciousness, and consciousness is nonphysical [2], and therefore it is not a material object, and therefore it cannot legitimately be treated as one philosophically and scientifically. So to put a conscious mind in the same category as mindless material stimuli in the external world is hugely misleading and incorrect. Kaku does not clarify this at the start. There is an enormous categorical difference between a mind and any physical object. The two are not comprised of the same "substance", with one being immaterial and the other material.
Michio Kaku starts out by describing deterministic Newtonian physics, where the universe operates like a machine, and one could, at least if one had total knowledge of all past events in the material world, know how a certain object will behave (I am distinguishing beings with conscious minds from purely physical objects). He notes that Einstein agreed with Newtonian determinism, yet Einstein thought this meant that humans do not have free will. Kaku claims that quantum physics has destroyed this notion that we can know exactly how matter will behave in the future (as is hypothetically possible under the Newtonian physics), and concludes that this uncertainty about future events means that "Einstein was wrong" and that humans have free will. The fallacies! First, Kaku ignores the difference between a conscious mind and a mindless material object (like a baseball). Second, he claims that it follows from future events being uncertain that we have free will, contrary to what Einstein believed. This is a major non sequitur.
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| Einstein was definitely incorrect about free will--but not for the reason given by Michio Kaku. |
Not knowing what will happen if I perform an experiment does not mean that the results of the experiment are not determined, only that the exact causal chain leading to them is unknown. This is vastly different than Kaku's fallacious conclusion. According to what he has described, quantum physics means only that we can't predict with certainty what will occur in the future. Of course! Even if total determinism dominated human behaviors, I still don't know all the factors that result in the actual outcomes!
Of course, I have free will and I know that I have it, but this is not because the future is uncertain. It doesn't follow just from future events being unknown that I have free will. It follows from the fact that I have knowledge. Without free will, I cannot have knowledge, because if I do not have free will then I am not in control of exercising my rationality and thus can never actually know anything, but only react and believe as other forces beyond my mind dictate. I have knowledge--I know that truth, logic, and my consciousness exist, for instance, and to deny knowledge is to rely on it and prove it, though there are other things I know. Therefore, since I have knowledge, I have free will. I have written before on what possession of free will does not mean [3].
Now I have to clarify that Newtonian determinism by its very nature cannot affect conscious minds with free will, as it could only apply to mindless material objects. I am not a purely material object; I am a conscious mind inhabiting and animating a physical body, and thus any determinism within the external world of mindless objects does not necessarily affect me, as I have a mind with a will. Determinism in the material world does not necessitate that the thoughts of an immaterial mind or the behaviors of the body it inhabits are just as utterly determined as objects that cannot think or perceive or will. A mindless domino cannot choose to stand or fall if a line of falling dominoes behind it knocks it down. But a mind, a consciousness with a will, is not even made out of matter like a domino is! And, as I explained here and elsewhere, I have free will. What follows from me not having free will is inescapably false. I know I have free will not because of quantum uncertainty or because of anything having to do with the scientific method or the external world at all--it is because of logic and immediate introspective experience.
[1]. http://bigthink.com/videos/why-physics-ends-the-free-will-debate?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook
[2]. See here:
A. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/09/examining-meditations-part-6-mind-body.html
B. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-immateriality-of-consciousness.html
C. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/10/consciousness-cannot-be-illusory.html
[3]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/09/explaining-free-will.html
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ReplyDeleteQuantum physics might actually be a viable avenue to explain volition, or "free will".
ReplyDeleteThough consciousness may very well be immaterial in essence, it IS a result of the flesh, which is very material and thus subject to deterministic causes. When you begin to freeze in the cold, then your body instantly reacts with involuntary shivering, goosebumps, and a priority of thinking to seek warmth. And yet another more subtle example of embodied cognition is when you're holding a warm drink, say a cup of coffee, then you're much more likely to feel a sense a warmth to the person you're speaking with.
Most people most of the time, unless they've had extensive training, along the lines of emergency first responders or military special forces, have no real free will or, more correctly, willpower. But instead we all have, in varying degrees of reserves and efficiency, blood sugar. Once you go long enough without eating or sleep, whatever "free will" you're trumpeting around now will be utterly sapped and you will naturally resort to very hedonistic and animalistic behaviors at the mercy of immediate deterministic forces and conditions.
What's more is that in that state your psyche, or soul (psuche), becomes ripe for programming or in other words brainwashing. It's a classic technique in religious cults and militaries since ancient times. You may be truly surprised at just how much of identity and "free will" are simply illusory that can be and constantly are highly subject to outside unconscious influence.
As to the consciousness somehow being untouched by the physical, man notice that you're in intellectual dreamland. At our very best most disciplined state, we're still inseparately attached to a very physical sensual body and the Bible, notably Paul and John's epistles, makes this very clear. To seriously propose otherwise isn't an exercise of rationale (Christian or otherwise), but of puffed up arrogance...so watch out.
Granted, if the Bible is true and you have indeed been quickened (zóopoieó) - which is NOT a choice for you to even make (John 5:21), then you might actually have more of a sense of a real identity and volition than those who are otherwise Biblically likened to as the walking dead.
And the dead never choose to make themselves alive, do they?
If you care to further explore the nature of consciousness and how that relates to the body and its impulses that inevitably govern our behaviors, then I suggest you research the Triune Brain model...and begin to realize and recognize that the thoughts of most people most of time are not even their own.
Do you even know what free will is? It is the ability to choose between multiple courses of action without some other force making you act in a certain way. Of course free will doesn’t mean that you can will away sensory perceptions like feelings of extreme cold! And I do not recall ever feeling heightened emotional warmth for someone because I was holding a cup of warm liquid.
DeleteI never said that a variety of factors could not influence a choice someone makes, only that someone’s behavior is controllable by his or her mind. But if I lift my right arm now, I did not lift it because there was no other possible outcome. Saying that I don’t have free will because I can’t voluntarily shut out feelings of coldness is like saying I don’t have free will because I can’t choose to fly if I leap off of a mountain. I may not be able to choose to fly, but I can choose to not jump to begin with.
If you don’t possess any kind of free will, then you cannot know anything at all (including that you do not have free will), because other forces determine your conclusions. But I do possess knowledge. I know that truth exists, that a thing is what it is, that I exist, and so on. It follows from the fact that I have knowledge that I have free will, and my mental experiences are consistent with this.
Also, you identify as a someone professing Christian beliefs. One of Christianity’s central tenets is that certain moral obligations exist. There can be no such thing as moral responsibility if free will is an illusion, because God would ultimately punish people for decisions they could never make. The Bible actually affirms free will in multiple places, such as when Revelation says that whoever “wishes” can obtain salvation (22:17). There is a major difference between being spiritually “dead” and having no ability to choose anything at all freely. Your ignorance is astounding.
If you read carefully, I didn't say that free will doesn't exist but that it is far more limited per individual than we tend to suppose. You can't choose to have musical talent, nor would you even want to study music without sufficient desire...and it's primarily desire that moves us in whatever direction. In the same way you can't exercise your free will to genuinely fall in love, but instead if you've ever really experienced such, then know you it's a captivating force beyond your control that sweeps you off your feet. Ah, but you may say that you can use your volition to resist, but with honest evaluation, and experience, you'll admit that if the feeling persists strongly enough then you simply can't, especially after your blood sugar is drained.
DeleteAs for Revelation 22:17...it's well worth putting that into context and examining the original language. For instance look at the verses leading up to it beginning with 22:14 and notice that the people who have washed their robes have a right to enter the city(do you know what that means?) and access the tree of life (do you know who that is?). And the robes are washed in the blood of Jesus, which is a command, whereas those who haven't in verse 15 have not and can not, because it wasn't shed for them.
This becomes more clear in verse 17 with ...And let him that heareth say Come... The word "heareth"is tranlated from the root akouo, which is probably more precisely translated as "harken" because it has the sense of obedience as in the way an authority figure might say "Listen to me!" - it's an imperative not an invitation for consideration. The Hebrew equivalent to this is shama and is used identically in the Old Testament.
Note how the Scriptures consistently present that man in his natural state cannot hear, will not obey, or even seek to even understand such commands due to being at enmity with God as a slave to sin. Notice that it's our pride and arrogance that persuades us that we have in fact made the right choices, or even that we can. This is why in Jeremiah God says that man's righteousness is filthy rags - menstrual cloths. Now do women ever freely choose to menstruate?
So in short no one can come to the Lord, except the Father which hath sent Jesus draw him. - John 6:44
So how is that "free will"? Notice instead logically and intuitively that we only have the capacity - physically, mentally, and willfully that has been given to us. A better, more accurate, honest, and even sympathetic assessment is that we have varying degrees of liberty.
“Most people most of the time, unless they've had extensive training, along the lines of emergency first responders or military special forces, have no real free will...”
DeleteYes, you plainly said that many people do not truly have free will. Not that I ever actually said you denied that any form of free will exists.
A person may not be able to will feelings of love into existence or out of existence, but he or she can choose to invest in a relationship, cultivate it, and walk away from it. When did I say all feelings are experienced voluntarily? And I never said that consciousness is never affected in any way by my body. But this doesn’t negate anything about my mental autonomy. When my will is directed towards lifting my leg and I lift it, my consciousness is actively controlling my body, not the other way around. Determinism in the natural world does not override my free will.
The people in verse 14 washed their robes. They were not forced into New Jerusalem against their will. If an authority figure issues a command, all listeners with the same metaphysical nature as that of myself can still deliberate, contemplate, and choose how to react. Also, if the Bible truly did teach that humans have no free will, God would be responsible for keeping unsaved humans in an unrepentant state. Pretending like God can simultaneously be morally perfect and be the reason some people are in rebellion against him, which is a sin, is asinine. If God wants all people to be saved, as 2 Peter 3 explicitly affirms, then he cannot be the reason they are not saved by preventing them from choosing redemption. To want everyone to be saved and yet actively lock some out of salvation at the same time is an expression of cognitive dissonance.
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