Photo credit: Flickr – Tommy Tsutsui
“You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.” –Alan Watts
When we look at an individual possessing stunning good looks, we may say “they won the genetic lottery.” We recognize that the individual really has no say in their appearance, ranging from eye colour to height. We are even willing to admit that there are certain facets to a person’s character that they cannot help—say, their sexual orientation, their introversion, or their explosive anger. But how far does it go?
“We eventually have to acknowledge that why we were been born the way we were is entirely a matter of luck.”
Our individual personality and consciousness is utterly dependent on a vast array of biological underpinnings, all of which we had no say in shaping. If we rewind the tape back far enough, we eventually have to acknowledge that why we were been born the way we were is entirely a matter of luck. Why our subjective experience is of being a human in the first place, and not a cat or a grizzly bear, is also due to chance. The human brain, being the incredibly complex organ that it is, is tremendously difficult to study and to understand fully. When scientists observe the brain, they come to understand that there is no “ghost in the machine.” The brain operates on its own accord without an operator and it must obey the laws of physics. It feels like we are the operators but that is not so, rather it is the brain that is guiding our behaviour, emotions, and thought. This has been demonstrated in various experiments, in which we see that brain activity precedes the conscious experience of making a decision; therefore, the choice was illusory because it had been determined by endless causal factors.
What differentiates us from a chair or a tube of toothpaste is consciousness. That is to say, we have subjective inner lives. With that comes the feeling of being an actor who participates in the world; it is also the very thing that gives our life richness and meaning. We can recognize the beauty and uniqueness of our situation and the importance of our actions, while not excluding ourselves from the reality of cause and effect. We can be productive and caring, while understanding our actions in the context of cause and effect. We still can (and do) feel personal responsibility because being the social human animals that we are has a unique circumstance: our behaviour has an important effect on those around us. However, on the view of the universe as a set of causes and effects (thereby doing away with the common conception of free will), actions that don’t serve a productive function make little sense, such as retribution instead of helpful reformation.
“When understanding the world this way, a certain humility dawns on us. It allows pride and arrogance to subside because there is nothing, really, to be proud or arrogant about.”
When understanding the world this way, a certain humility dawns on us. It allows pride and arrogance to subside because there is nothing, really, to be proud or arrogant about. It is also harder to feel righteous hatred and moral superiority. We don’t have to hate even the worst among us, rather we can regard it as unfortunate that the physical conditions are the way they are. It removes the biting cynicism from the statement “that’s just life” and turns it into a profound insight. Perhaps instead of blame, we can feel compassion. Determinism and fatalism are not identical, however, and it is vital to remember this: yes, our choices are predetermined but life is not unchangeable. For the universe is in perpetual flow, and we are not (and cannot be) separate from this.
