It has come to my attention that I have been reasoning under an assumption that not all people hold to be true.  This ‘assumption’ is actually more of a clear distinction in my mind between the nature of choice and biological compulsion.

Choice or ‘free will’: I am aware that there is some sort of religious connotation here, something about god giving man free will.  I’ve never been much concerned with biblical references and I’m not familiar with the popular interpretation of the bible, so I’d better go ahead and define what I mean when I speak about free will.

Free will is man’s ability to make a conscious and conscientious decision – the ability to consider the repercussions of his actions and act accordingly.  Man does not always exercise his free will; he sometimes acts without thinking or under the direction of others.  But the point is that man has the option to discriminate in his actions and this is free will.

Now for biological compulsion:  ‘Biology’ is the hormones coursing in your blood, it is the cause of some very powerful emotions - love, jealousy, pride, compassion to name a few.  Biology is generally the cause of man’s compulsion – free will is the decision of whether to act on this initial compulsion or to choose an alternative.

Now, to keep this interesting, I think it’s time for a thesis:

All actions are proposed by biology, influenced by society and are either confirmed or refuted by free will. 

Well, now I’ve gone an introduced a new player; society.  So what is society?  Society is something of a collective conscience – a default free will of sorts.  It provides a popular suggestion – offered by the free wills of those currently holding the greatest popular influence.  Society itself is a product of man’s decision and therefore creates a rather peculiar feedback of itself.  Society is also something that changes over time – sometimes very quickly and if there is one thing an astute historian will observe it is that the essential dispositions of people haven’t really changed much over the last 4000 years.  We still love, we still cheat - some of us are slave to pleasure, others aspire to achieve - we are expressive when free and suspicious when oppressed.  Even with touchy subjects like sexuality it is apparent that desires vary little over societies by the simple fact that as soon as a behavior comes back into fashion there is a multitude to take it up wholeheartedly.  It is not the human impulse that changes, what is actually variable is the public acknowledgment of behaviors and the ease in finding collaborators; I am sure that were polygamy to come back into public acceptance in our country there would be no shortage of willing participants.  In time a society will change as different factions take control but the overall composition of people will not – different behaviors will manifest and others will be pushed under the surface but always there will be the desire for order and the desire for chaos – chastity and debauchery – love and fear.

So what exactly is the role of free will – if all of our impulses are based in biological needs?  The interesting thing about human compulsions is that they are inherently contradictory.  Any beneficial compulsion, if taken too far, becomes damaging.  The desire to procreate is a good thing in moderation (without it a community would die off in a generation); taken beyond moderation and a community finds itself burdened by scores of fatherless children*.  The desire to compete is a good thing in moderation as it promotes invention and advancement; taken too far and competitors are killing each other and tearing down the community around them.

Free will is basically the internal ‘balance’ in every human brain – it’s calibrated a little differently for each individual but the point remains the same – to keep biological compulsions in line.

A clear example to take away from all of this, and the root of many arguments around the topic of homosexuality, is that lifestyle decisions are based on biological forces and only the extent to which they are taken is a product of free will.  A homosexual can not affect his compulsions but he can affect his actions – he can have sex with his own gender, simply abstain altogether or go so far as to affect heterosexuality.  Regardless of what he does (free will) this does not change who he is or what genes he will pass on to future generations.

I will take this further than the homosexuality example and extend the concept to every action that anyone takes, from crime to compassion; people have different inherent impulses which they can not change, but reserve the will to indulge or deny those impulses.

 

*this might be changing; birth control is the ‘printing press’ of the social world – the most influential invention in existence – the religious authorities are right to fear it.  Hell, in some small way I fear it – any time you mess with the fabric of society, you run the risk of unraveling the whole quilt.