Do we have free will and freedom?

Pinker’s argument, specifically, his beliefs in the influence that genes and biology play in shaping human nature and behavior were views that I could not fully get behind. A couple aspects of his argument contradict my deeply-held value that people’s, environments, support systems, families, social priorities, and education greatly affects human behavior, self-image, human interactions, and whether people made good vs bad decisions. We might not completely be blank slates due to our genetic makeup but I believe we are more than our genes affecting human nature. I really enjoyed reading Pinker’s argument. There was something about it that made me want to believe it even though there were multiple reasons that I don’t. When it comes down to it, I think that most of the examples that he gave tended to be generalizations and an argument that would be difficult to make universally to human kind.

One moment from Pinker’s “The Blank Slate” that really got me thinking about free will and the idea that our genes, in a way, predetermine our choices was the following passage:

“The ghost in the machine also has considerable appeal. People don’t like to think of themselves as heaps of glorified clockwork. Machines, we like to think, are insensate and have some workaday purpose, like grinding corn or sharpening pencils. Humans, in contrast, are sentient, and have some higher purpose, such as love, worship, and the pursuit of knowledge and beauty. Machines follow the ineluctable laws of physics, whereas behavior is freely chosen. With choice comes optimism about possibilities for the future, and with choice comes responsibility, the power to hold others accountable for their actions.”

This moment in the reading is meaningful for me because I think there is often a lot of debate about free will and fate and the amount of freedom people have and should have. I can’t say that I have heard the argument that our minds and bodies as biological products of our genes dictate our free will very often. This was probably why I found this moment very intriguing. As I have grown up and become more independent, I believe that the experience of having to make some pretty big decisions that could have led me in different directions allows me to see different ways in which decisions I have made have shaped my life. I think understanding ways in which past decisions could have changed your life if you had made them differently is a large factor in making choices freely. Pinker would argue that we don’t make choices freely as much as we would like to think that we do. Although he does give many examples to back up his argument in this article, I think he gives this argument in a way that doesn’t really acknowledge that people make decisions every day and they all in some aspect affect one’s life. This speaks to my beliefs of people’s environments affecting their decisions because I believe that there are many factors that go into decision making.

I think this issue shows the existence of ‘science wars’ because it debates the primary causes of human behavior and incorporates and interplays with varying levels of genetics, biological science, psychology, and social factors. I think the extent to which people have free will, think that they have free will, and even want to have free will is definitely influenced by someone’s environment. This is definitely something that we should care about because identifying factors (sometimes outside influences) that affect personal freedom and free will directly influences how people are able to live their lives and the rights that they have. For example, I think people under the control of oppressive governments view freedom differently than those who live in societies where they have more freedoms. I think how we view freedom and if we have it affect how we use it. I guess societal freedom and personal choice aren’t things Pinker analyzes in extreme depth but throughout his argument I kept thinking that these are big things that impact how people act and behave and is very much impacted by people’s social environment.