Fork in the road. (Fardin Shadab Dhrubo - 24301472 - 53)

Introduction

For the past few years I have been thinking about a question that most people can easily answer because of it's nature but it does have something deeper to it.

The question is how much autonomy we have over our actions. If I ask this question to a random person the most common answer is that we have complete autonomy over our actions because that is common sense. But is the decision that we make in a certain situation actually a decision or something that was unavoidable. Is it just an illusion that we have choices? 

Analysis

Let's try to think of how we make choices first. The definition of a choice is the act of choosing between one or more possibilities. How do we make the final decision of choosing one possibility over the other? There's two answers to this question it's either that the choice was completely random or it was based on previous personal experiences and data that we have (cause and effect). The previous personal experiences shape our preferences. Now how much control do we have over our experiences? It is pretty limited. We cannot choose where we are born, in which family we are born into. When a child is born his entire thought framework is based on his parents and his environment. In the early years we don't really make autonomous choices it is like living on autopilot. A child is like a sponge who absorbs everything he hears and sees and around him.

What I'm trying to say here is even before we make "choices" a foundation is already built from when we were younger. This foundation then guides us to make the next choices. Now as a result how much of the choices that we make in the future is due to something that we didn't choose in the first place? When you are asked a question like if you want fuchka or ice cream, you think about it for a moment then you choose which one to eat. How did you make that choice? Again one of two things either it was impulsive/random or it was due to a preference for one over the other. In this where exactly is complete autonomy? It's more like the ability to choose something you like but what you like is out of your control. We can now talk about some ideas that deal with how much autonomy an individual can have.

Determinism and compatibilism

Some ideas that are relevant to this blog are determinism and compatibilism. Determinism states that every choice we make is due to cause and effect. Basically leaving no room for autonomy. In this case every choice we make has a pre existing reason for it and that reason also has another reason. It recursively goes down to a root choice which was caused by something out of our control. This often comes off as pretty depressing as it leaves no room for free will to exist but if viewed from another perspective it can come off as kind of relaxing. As you can stop worrying too much about what has happened in the past. You understand that you had quite less autonomy in making the choices in the past as a result it helps you to focus on the present and future more. This is like saying if you theoretically had a super computer which could compute everything you could theoretically tell everything about a person's past, present and future.

Lines converging to a single destined point

Compatibilism on the other hand agrees with the deterministic nature of the world but also takes into account of autonomy. That to some extent people have autonomy over their choices. It accepts that it is limited but nevertheless it still exists. An argument for this stance could be that the individual has autonomy to choose which way they want to steer their deterministic framework. For example twins who've have had the same upbringing turn out to be completely different from each other when they grow up. Or when a person goes completely against their morals or ideas and makes a choice. These are pretty compelling ideas to support compatibilism.

Conclusion

Anyways now that we know about both determinism and compatibilism which one do you think is more logical and sound? We have already established that people have limited autonomy but how limited? Is every decision that we ever will make just due to cause and effect where there is no room for autonomy or do you think it is possible for both to exist. How much do we truly control and how much is shaped by the external forces of our past? This blog's purpose was to provoke some thoughts about the matter. I don't know what exactly is the answer but it is a good topic to talk about and is also quite intellectually stimulating. Thanks for reading.