I’m not sure that I’m going to do this topic justice in a short daily-ink, so I’m just going to mind dump and see where this takes me.
I’ve written about the Bell Curve of Free Will, where I stated,
If we have free will then I believe that how much choice we have will be influenced considerably by our circumstance and by how virtuous we are.
I won’t try to explain this too much further here, visit them post if this idea interests you. The image I added tried to do too much with a single chart, but my main points were that 1. You have more choice when you have more wealth (better circumstances); and, 2. You have less free will when you are more virtuous. Example: A very virtuous person can’t choose to take advantage of someone for profit the way a less virtuous person can, but the less virtuous person can make the choice to do so, or to not do so, or to maybe be 1/2 ‘generous’ and take advantage for less profit than possible, because they consider themselves as being nice.
But where do beliefs fit in? And what does this have to do with facts?
I think we might have less free will than I originally thought because our belief system alters our view of what truth is. When you believe that your religion is the only path to your salvation, then the information that led you to this belief are going to seem like facts… and these facts limit your choices and free will. If you follow Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or Judaism, you have beliefs about the world we live in that are different from the other faiths. Based on your interpretation, there are things you can and can’t do, such as dietary restrictions. In many cases, your choice of partner are limited, by faith, or even by gender.
But I’m just using religion as an example. We have many beliefs that affect our perception of facts, and that affect the choices we make. Conspiracy theories work like a religion. They paint the picture of a world that limits our choices and our ability to see alternative views. If you wholeheartedly believe the world is flat, you need to build a whole world model around how international flights arrive on time, and you have to construct entire belief systems around space flight and images of round stars and planets, and how gravity works. And when you do this, you literally create ‘facts’.
Other constructs of our beliefs alter the way we look at at facts, and how much free will we have to make choices. Because if we construct a world where we also construct the facts we choose to pay attention to, these created facts then limit the choices we can make.
If we don’t share the same beliefs then we don’t share the same truths. We alter facts to fit our beliefs.
How does someone on the political left vs the political right define the following:
- Communism
- Socialism
- Fascism
- Democracy
- Social welfare
- Liberty
- Freedom
- Religion’s place in politics
The definitions of these terms are very different on the political spectrum. Beliefs alter facts. Interpretations of these so-called facts limit our choices, our free will.
We don’t perceive the world as it is. Our beliefs define our world, define the things we are willing to accept as facts, and determine the choices we believe we have to make. Beliefs alter what we perceive as facts and limit our ability to make free choices.
We all have a story that frames how we see the world, the values we adhere to, what we believe and how to act in the world. But we are not determined and can change our story (although it can be challenging and difficult). As the Nigerian storyteller once wrote, “Change your story and you might very well change your life.” Perhaps notions of choice are simply a product of the story we tell ourselves. And then there is the wisdom of Victor Frankl who asked himself why did he survive the concentration camps when others didn’t? His answer was while the Nazi captors could take away everything from him, including his life, they couldn’t take away his choice to respond to the circumstances he was in. Perhaps he had a different story and understanding of choice than others did.
Wonderful Al, thank you for sharing. I can see this from 2 perspectives, first my personal perspective of growth and appreciating many lessons that were hard to learn at the time. From this perspective, changing our history… our story… my story, I see how powerful this is. But when I see the dichotomy of polarized views, and people who are set on their view, people who have a world view that is solidly framed and fixed, I wonder about what choices they have, and what influence we have?
That can be read two ways: How do I change their minds to my view? Or how can I open their minds to other perspectives, how can I help them see beyond their frame. The first way can be selfish, the second is more about creating a world where disagreements can happen but dialogue is authentic and offers an opportunity for mutual insights from multiple perspectives. Right now I don’t see a lot of that happening.