"What do you believe?"
Every so often I am asked this question. My answer is usually some off-hand remark about being agnostic (read: indecisive). But if I were to honestly consider the question, I may be lead to say that what I believe is that we are all here for a reason; not necessarily for a purpose, but certainly for a reason. Also, although I may be contradicting myself, I believe in choice and free will.
It's a theory that has been coagulating in the pit of my mind for a while now. While it seemed an epiphany at the time, after years surfing the net and browsing the numerous authoritative discertations of self-proclaimed intelligentsia, it all appears rather banal.
Please, if there are any philosophy majors or critical thinkers out there, leave me my ego and restrain from tearing apart my argument.
Elementary chemistry teaches us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is not to say that the results of actions are equal to the action itself. Some people call this a snowballing effect, domino effect, or a butterfly effect (where a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio de Janeiro might change the weather in Chicago), point being that it is virtually impossible to see in totality the effects of our actions as ripple and build with other actions in an infinite system. At the same time, it is also impossible to be aware of all the factors that came to cause your action. Following this thinking, if everything is based on cause and effect, any particular action you take or "choice" you make is a reaction to past actions and circumstances. While there are options and different paths to be travelled - "choices" if you will - which path is ultimately followed is the end result of a cosmic equation of infinite variables. Sure, there are different options available, but if somebody knew all the particulars of you, your environment, and the history of your experiences and interactions, they would be able to predict your actions with the utmost accuracy.
So the concept of "choice" exists in that we are, theoretically, confronted with many options every minute of every day. But we never actually practice "choice" because all of our actions are but reactions. In otherwords, everything is predetermined by, for lack of a better word, fate.
So why try? If everything is predetermined, then my failures, my circumstances are but a result of fate. Responsibility and accountability are no longer in the individual's domain. This course of thinking, if adopted by even a few can be dangerous. Already we are seeing cases in criminal law (alright, I saw it on Law & Order) where the Defence argues that we are all victims of circumstance. A poor upbringing, a tragic occurrence, and preconceptions imposed by society are all grounds for dismissal of blame.
While I would agree that the consignment of blame should not fall on any single person, neither should it fall on the "system" itself, as if it were a separate entity from its parts (people). I would also argue that the responsibility for actions are not equally spread out among the parts. Accountability is not equal, it falls more heavily on some than others, and justifiably so. But people must still be held somewhat accountable for there actions, if only to maintain a healthy functioning society.
Thus, while this take on predeterminism makes sense to me, I nevertheless believe in free will. I "choose" to believe in choice as even if free will does not truly exist, by believing in it, one can create a state of "virtual free will", serving the purpose of injecting responsibility, accountability, and a sense of accomplishment into life. Creating a sense of "self" for individual cogs in a complex automaton of life.
Let's just end this here before I go off on a tangent on self and reality and what little I know of Descartes' "A Discourse on the Method".
