I had a conversation today that got me thinking about free will. What is it, how do you exercise it and how is it different from personal accountability and being total free, topics I wrote a post about on Aug 24th.
The discussion that set me off was about a hypothetical case where a man entered a crowded auditorium, walked to center stage, dropped his pants and defecated. This was a conversation opener as an extreme example of free will. My initial response was if someone dressed up as batman, entered a crowded movie theater and shot several people dead is that an exercise of free will?
Respect Others!
Obviously society has placed constraints on behavior. Killing others clearly does not fly as an expression of free will in any society around the world (although consequences of such expressions of “free will” vary depending on where, why, etc). Defecating could be construed as a political act and might pass society’s muster. This would depend on a number of things and in North America we use the legal system to help manage these decisions.
The concept of free will though is as bit different from the philosophy of total freedom I explored in my previous post (although related). We do control how we think but personal accountability and societal constraints impact how we can express our free will within the context of those we live with.
What about seat belt laws?
In most provinces in Canada we are not free to travel in a car without wearing a seat-belt. Of course we could express our free will and not wear the seat belt, taking the risk of consequences (probably a fine, maybe death). The interesting question is whether a society has the right to impose on it’s members constraints like the requirement to wear a seat belt when traveling in a car (The right to limit the act of murdering others seems pretty obvious, but forcing people to wear seat belts?)
Practicing Free Will – RULE OF THUMB
On Aug 13th I captured a basic personal philosophy in my blog post Aspire Against All Odds and I believe it is worth repeating in the context of this discussion. The best way to determine how to practice free will could be as simple as the following:
I will live my life to maximize my personal pleasure as long as I don’t impede on the personal pleasure of others.