| |
| |
| |
| |
Belief in an indeterministic basis of freedom implies that spontaneity and creativity must be random events, while actually they are expressions of highly complex, responsive, adaptive behavior. Although such behavior may be free of the determinants of social or cognitive rules, if it is really spontaneous or creative it must be determined by, and appropriate to, the demands and criteria implicit in the materials and their context. This kind of behavior is dependent upon sensitivity to the characteristics of the situation and the ability to flexibly rearrange them in order to serve the creator's purposes. Since such healthy integrated behavior is more complexly determined, it is more variable and less predictable or manipulable than rigid, unhealthy behavior. Healthy behavior has much in common with that of the Zen Master who always acts in response to all aspects of the present. Because he acts in accord with the nature of events, he knows when and how to act or not act, and his behavior displays the effortless “going with the grain” exemplified by ju jitsu, “the yielding art” which responds to an attack with a minimum effort applied in the simplest way. The healthy human being is neither a pawn of external forces nor a totally independent agent, but a significant, self-conscious participant in the determination of events.
Although the basis of this paper is a mechanical determinism, the knowledge that I am a knowing, thinking, feeling, acting participant in a cosmic scheme about which I know little brings me close to a mystic position that many might call religious. I am freed from senseless regret over the past which could not have been otherwise, and I am free to act in the present for the sake of the future. When I see a silver tree, quivering in breeze and sunlight, it is not less beautiful for my knowledge of energy, enzymes and evolution. My delight is augmented by my pleasure in the reflection that my knowledge, my pleasure, and my reflection are also products of self-referring deterministic forces. The tree is still beautiful, and I still enjoy the taste of chocolate cake.
Even if the hypothesis of universal strict determinism is not valid, we can only gain by attempting to broaden our knowledge of those events which can be described by deterministic laws, and applying those laws to improve our condition. In regards to lawful events, at least, freedom is gained by “The recognition of lawfulness and the consequent application of this knowledge of laws to the attainment of control over the environment and over ourselves... The control of bondage rather than its impossible absence, the conscious mastering of determination rather than the unawareness of it, or the illusory escape from laws.” (Bunge, 1959, p. 182)
“The truth shall make you free.”
Note: (2003) In the 35 years since this article was written, it has been largely ignored, just as Charles Bray's very similar arguments, published in 1841 (160 years ago) has been ignored. Hundreds of books and thousands of articles continue to be published which contain the same kind of epistemological errors described here.
| |
| |
| |
| |
