Have you wondered if the decisions we made and make were caused by past factors or were just chose by our free will though out our lives? Paul Ree’s explanation to that sums up that free will does not exists, thus, there is no moral responsibility and vice versa. which can be basically translated as having no real choice because every action is predetermined. The concepts of right and wrong are however left behind as well as one’s values that play an important role in decisions making, the role of fatalism and finally, the possibility that free will and decisions are not only made from our mind but from out heart.
Paul Ree came with his theory that free will is not real and thus we should not feel morally responsible towards our actions or decisions. In other words, “right” and “wrong” are not part of his vocabulary. However, something does not feel completely right, ironic is it not? Let’s imagine that Bill wants revenge on Billy because Z was murdered by Billy. If we use Ree’s thinking to explain the how of the why we would say that the vengeance was caused by the murder of Z which led Bill to want to kill Billy. But why did Billy kill Z?
Ree would say that it was due to a conditioning, that maybe Y experienced something as a child which pushed him to with no real reasons, kill Z. It can be concluded then that no one, in this example, can be blamed because no one did anything purposely. What does that make them? Just machines? In his text, an important factor is missed. Perspective. At the end, all that matters is how each of sees and interprets a situation. There will never something totally right or totally wrong, however, there is always going to be something kind of right and kind of wrong, it is up to judge if what has been done is acceptable or not.
No one will ever be right or wrong, Descartes mentioned that he strongly believe that God exists and thus, his instinct is actually God guiding him through life(). Each individual has his on way on dealing with the decision he has to make at the moment and as much experienced, life seems to not be fair when hard decisions must make and hits us right in the face with reality. In Bertrand Russel’s book, Berkley mentioned something interesting concerning reality. He said that there is “nothing acceptable as real except minds and their ideas”. hich in other means that our minds and ideas are true but that matter is not. This made me think through a lot and also made believe in destiny. Paul ree clearly states in the law of casualty meaning that every decision or action was caused by a situation or say which were caused by something and so on. That is where the idea of destiny came to mind. Everyone has a goal or something he wants to archive in life and its decisions and actions would lead that person towards his goal.
If I decide to strongly believe in free will, I make a choice according to that free will and I undertake the consequences, we can then, say that I do not have free will because the action pushes me to undertake, be responsible for my actions. It is like the dog biting its tail. I do not have free will by choosing free will because this brings me to take upon consequences. For example, The soldier’s destiny is war, it was predetermined that he would protect and defend his country against the enemy.
He is forced to go on the field, fight, shoot others that want to harm his country and that is fine because destiny takes responsibility for his actions. He submits himself to destiny. If the other soldier decides to choose and choose free will despite the fact that all actions are predetermined, he would be free to kill like he is free to not kill. However, he knows that if he does not kill, he risks his life and also a certain guilt concerning that choice; he killed to stay alive, if he refuses, he could end up killed or if he deserts, it will be his choice from his own free will, yet, the will his decision killed or aptured by his own comrades. There is not free will since there are consequences because those consequences are predestined by the choice of free will. When we think that all our actions are predetermined, we discharge all kind of responsibilities to a destiny which is, fatality. Fatalism means that the world in its whole, and the existence of humans, follow an unavoidable path, where its course of event slip through human’s will.
However the little twist here is that determinism is not as extreme in terms of cause and effects, the decisions and actions taken at the present will have an effect where fatalism does not even consider anything in the future and goes with the flow. Even if both definitions are pretty similar in its construction, Peter van Inwagen’s came up with a very good definition on fatalism: “Fatalism … is the thesis that that it is a logical or conceptual truth that no one is able to act otherwise than he in fact does; that the very idea of an agent to whom alternative courses of action are open is self-contradictory. (An Essay on Free Will, p. 23. )
Many would think hat after Roe’s work and theory on determinism that fatalism falls right into it. Talk about star wars and the choice made, What if the choice Dark Vader made, came from his heart and not his mind. When we make choices, most of the time we think and analyze with our brain, to choose the best option and act from that option knowing that we another option was still possible to choose. However, there is another of thinking and it is heart thinking. Research showed that the heart has actual neurons working in the heart that makes the organ think for itself.
Gregg Braden, literature writer explains how this can be processed; Basically, our heart sends signals to the brain that will reflect the feelings. For instance and according to this research, If I suddenly stand in a position of choice 2 simple steps can be applied to choose it with my heart: Focus on the heart are of the body, breathe slowly and activate a positive feeling. According to BRadden, the answer we are looking for has been there since we were born and he emphasizes the fact that it can be trusted.
This approach comes very close to Paul Roe’s but in a different angle. Determinism strongly demonstrates that every decision made were caused by a past factor and the heart hold all the answers we actually need to have when we make a decision; Either way, we could think that free will is inexistent especially from Ree’s point, nevertheless, even of the heart gives an absolute truth for the person, he still has the choice to follow it or not and will at the end accept the consequences whatever he takes it or not.
A brain is a wonderful tool for or everyday life tasks but if Ree’s theory of free will is followed, then, individuals would probably not believe that they do not have freedom of choice where on the other hand, the heart intelligence would still allow the opportunity to choose.