Personal Writing About The Idea of Freedom and Self-Sufficiency

The concept of freedom is not a skill to be learned, practiced or improved upon. Nor could it be utilized or withheld upon volition. It is only optional either in its existence or in its exercise. It can either be increased or diminished by wish or labor. The idea of being free begins when we are (what we believe to be) conscious of how we limit ourselves and our destinies to any of the confines of the presumed fate that we have already accepted. It is taking place not only when we are aware that it is existent, but when we are convinced that we can redirect ourselves from what we believe was the inevitable outcome and steer ourselves to one that is more desirable. And it is free will that has ultimately occurred when we have mindfully acted upon a decision that we believed was possible of achieving.

One important point that we must mention is that a person is not free to act if he is without an opportunity to do so. This might make us ask how does one truly know if t! here is an opportunity awaiting? First off, it would soon become apparent in any situation if there was one that did or did not exist. Second, if there was not one, or if we needed another solution, then we must decide whether to seek out another one. I feel that there always exists the possibilities of other opportunities in our endeavors mainly because if there is a cause; ones desire, it will lead to the effect; the motivation needed to make it a reality, then we would ultimately manage a way of presenting ourselves with an opportunity for an alternative route around the what we believed was our fate. Otherwise, I uphold that if I cannot conceive of any alternative opportunities, nor have desire to seek one out then I have neglected to exercise what I believe is free will. For instance, If I had the desire to play a piano and was told that I could not play one because there was not one around me or in sight, this would mean that I am not able play the piano.

I should not necessarily imply that I have no desire to, and to the lesser extent, imply I am not capable of finding an opportunity to play on one. I am aware that not even for a split second would I have to accept not physically being able to play a piano because it would be overshadowed by my minds capacity for using the rational and contemplative problem solving skills that I have learned to develop. Because of this, these tools would allow the arrangement of thoughts that would devise the methods for the needed efforts. Then the efforts given would ultimately enable the manifestation of my desired event(s). Already, from the moment I was presented with the situation, I with a libertarian mind frame, knew that I could choose a fate by just sitting down and accepting that Im not going to play a piano because there is not one in front of me. But why would I do that when I could seek out an opportunity and think of who I would ask, where would I go to find one, how would!

I get there, and when should I act. And by exercising these components of what I believe is my free will, the solution would appear to be simple; I would go outside, get into my car, drive to the music store, and select that electronic piano with the funky sound that Im dying to hear. I choose this to be an example of my free will because this simple cause/reaction scenario has proved that I not only had the power of letting a momentary desire becoming denied, but it could ensure me of the power I had to appease myself at the moment I felt that desire.

On the other hand, If we were determinists and we questioned as to what caused my desire to come true, we might be able to say that the choice I made to get into the car and drive to the music store itself made it so. This is, in it’s own sense, is true, and it leads there being a co-existence of two legitimate reasons; which is between what I thought was my free will acting against my presented circumstance or me simp! ly making my unconsciously ritualistic choices that determined the outcome. For such a reason, I cannot say whether I know what the truth was in the matter nor do I think that anyone else can, but I do know it is hard to prove either false. Therefore, it is often too hard to decide in situations which view was solely at work.

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One thing we have to remember is that my desired event would have never overtly offered me any opportunities if I could not have chosen from them regardless of which theory we adhere to. And sometimes, we do not have to think crtically about the opportunity we have that is given, that we chose from; for that it is naturally the way we desire it to be. I believe that choice, the forerunner of free will, is simply a matter intellect; it varies more or less when we apply our minds abilities into our problems so that we can create alternatives that would give us other opportunities. Let me add that I, being primarily a libertarian, think that it is imperative that we must be at the highest levels mental awareness when we create opportunities if none other are presented, because otherwise, it is more of just a determined choice that was less consciously executed, and thereby to my definition, does not imply that free will was excercised. The more we consciously, meaningfully, and intellectually choose amongst any of the options that we – ourselves have created (or at least something or someone else has presented to us), the greater the degree of it being the choice of free will that will allow us to succeed in acquiring our desires.

It has been believed that there lies in conjunction from all ideas and actions in our universe, an antithesis. Just as these two views are intended as the antithesis between each other, at times, they are more interrelated than we give them credit. It is hard for me to conceive how either can exist independently from each other in regards to human will, when I think how incomprehensible it is not to believe that there needs to be some degree of “will-power” when choosing upon an opportunity that will stage its desired outcome. So, somewhere between the libertarianism and determinism spectrum rests a balanced state of compatabilism where both theories can exist (as what I have eluded to address as what has occurred in our example). Personally, as a dualist, I generally believe that the mind is separate from the physical. Restating from my general view on freedom- the mind knows only of the limits it accepts – I will fortify to the concept of free will that it is only to be associated with the mental state(s). Thus, I will leave free will exclusive to the mental states involved in our human endeavors.

Since we say that all events were derived from prior decisions that we at some point made is what basically defines determinism, we could possibly include anything that experiences a physical destiny, is subject to pre-determinism. If we look back at the microscopic incident of when we theorized that it was me driving to the music store, the reason for what determined my desire to be fulfilled, this is an analogous comparison to the macroscopic phenomena of how the theorized “bigbang” set a whole onslaught of cataclysmic activities which was believed to be the cause that started the formation and functioning of our universe. From this colossal event, it pre-determined all of the substances and physical properties into existence. It was why we have magnetic attractions, physical forces, the elements, galaxies, stars, solar systems, planets, and of all, life! All of them (cautiously excluding human life) have been pre-determined to act, behave, or just exist in some manner because it was how the way the universe came to settle after the big bang. This is why a rock will stay in one place at rest and will only move if another force has been applied to it. Why also that rock will fall off a cliff because of gravity.

It is why water will always flows downhill and settles at its lowest point. And again, why electricity will flow to the path of least resistance and how energy constantly seeks a state of increased entropy. These are just a few physical properties and that will always exist under a subset of pre-determined events in our universe – not because they want to, because they have no choice unlike the human mind. But with our bodies, they are physical entities existing like everything else; will get old and we will eventually die. It has no choice because it is predetermined in our genetics that we will only live so long, before our time runs out. No matter how powerful our free will may be, we will eventually secom to the inevitable functions of life’s predetermined events. We can exercise a great degree of free will and choose to control the way we live life instead of letting the way of life control us, however, we still cant stop ourselves from dying. And ultimately, it is free will that will stand no choice to a pre-determined, universal event such as dying or having a moon-sized asteroid about to collide with earth, but we wont go without saying that at least mankind was capable of desiring to live and could brainstorm for opportunities how to live longer but the event itself will still happen.

Let me reiterate that the main point of my views and explanations explain that human endeavor operates on a compatabilist frame of thought. I, myself, believe that the amount of free will we exert governs how likely we are to consciously and intellectually decide on an opportunity that will successfully lead us to the desired event. Between free will’s possibilities versus determinism’s certainties, it might be true to say that our environment is ultimately responsible for the way we perceive our destinies and ourselves while it is up to the individual themselves to view how the human will operates. I also think why free will is practically exclusive to man is because of our intellectual and conscious advantages in the freedoms of choice that we possess over any other animal. And all inanimate objects in nature, including our bodies themselves, which are without thought and conscious, are completely at the mercy of the universe and its pre-determined fates. I ultimately feel that being limited to a hard deterministic mind frame causes us to underestimate the power of the mind and its abilities, thus, we are then naturally and unconsciously limiting ourselves without freedom of will to something less with whatever it is that we are accepting as our fate. We can change this if we become ambitious enough to believe and use our greatest gift our minds at a much deeper level and accept the possibilities behind free will; we will then immediately be able to lift away many of the barriers of naivet that we have laid in us and begin to see what being free is all.