Instead of being a solid foundation, the free-will paradigm seeks its support, its plea for validity, in the present social science milieu; an excellent example of circular reasoning. Mankind’s social institutions are founded in the belief man possesses a free-will. Then, defenders of the free-will paradigm point to a tangle of interdependent thought and the resulting social institutions and ask: How could these exist except that man has a free-will? To think otherwise is unthinkable!
Through the ages, the free-will paradigm has produced an endless progression of civilizations. Over and over and over again, they rise and fall. Governments, saturated in the divisive tenets of the free-will paradigm, conquer, subjugate and oppress until their saturated timbers rot and they become the conquered, subjugated and oppressed. All this while mathematic disciplines, and the natural and physical sciences steadily build solid and dependable structures, unabated; a resounding example of interdependent stability.
Economic systems, capitalism in particular, use the free-will paradigm to defend their rape of nature, their oppression of the masses and the incredible disparity between the powerful rich and powerless poor. Religious institutions, not to be confused with spiritual realities, have embraced the free-will paradigm, infusing the masses with fearful shame-based religious negativism and then welding the fruits of fear’s power to enhance their personal frailties. The unthinking majority suffer from herd mentality and are simply following their leaders over the precipice. The social science phenomenon, religion, struggles to explain life through free-will lenses; maneuvering to proselytize and causing deep rifts in society, sometimes resulting in violent confrontations and the deaths of millions. Unity and peace, though preached with genuineness, is antithical to the divisiveness inherent in the free-will foundations of mankind's religions. Mental health and social welfare institutions with truly noble efforts have desperately grappled with the free-will bureaucratic monster, struggling to make the thing work, attempting to staunch the rivers of blood flowing from mankind’s gaping, gangrenous wounds; wounds received at the end of the free-will rapier.
That all civilizations, complete with their religious culture, governmental institutions, social service machinery and economic theologies; that all civilizations up to and including the present are based on the free-will paradigm is a sobering indictment. That mathematics and the natural and physical sciences have solidly established foundations based in the enduring granite of hard determinism and are not subject to cyclic collapse and dysfunction only intensifies this indictment of the free-will model.
One would think a philosophy so intensely adopted by the citizens of history would have libraries filled with volumes unequivocally establishing its validity. What exists are convoluted arguments expressing, our present state of consciousness demands it; a de facto argument where there is no, “facto!” There are plenty of examples giving credence to the observations, the free-will paradigm functions in opposition to nature, does not efficiently guide mankind’s activities and actually produces a dysfunctional world society. One only has to read a newspaper, watch prime time television, walk down any city street after midnight, ask any victim of genocide, note the melting of the Arctic ice cap, count the number of wars beginning with the latest Iraqi quagmire and retracing the dragon’s path through history; evidence that free-will is a failed paradigm is overwhelming. The stench seems to compromise our ability to reason.
The dysfunctional attributes of the free-will paradigm: compulsive comparison, competition, social stratification, culpability, punishment, damnation, obscene materialism, striving, failure, legitimate fear, the perversion of what success means and looks like; these and many others have created a Sisyphus’ian treadmill where the exhausted masses lie in heaps at, or more accurately, under, the mountain’s foot. Those who still endeavor to bring their pebble up the free-will mountain are only postponing the inevitable crushing reality. Oddly enough, the message of the Stone is a benevolent one. Sisyphus, and all you others, you’re on the wrong mountain.
In the 1990’s, third edition of his book, Freedom of Choice Affirmed,” Corliss Lamont states: “On page 169 of the second edition I state: ‘There is a strong, immediate, commonsense intuition in practically all human beings that we possess true freedom in choosing between real alternatives.’ I now say that the intuition referred to governs the situation. In other words, free choice is an innate, inborn, natural power of human beings that enables them to state ‘I could have chosen otherwise,’ after any decision goes into effect. No arguments can negate this final conclusion.” Good grief!
Not having read much of anything regarding the free-will, determinism debate since my college years, about thirty-four years ago, I am unaware of the giants in this battle. But since Corliss Lamont’s book is in its third printing, unusual in books of this nature, I am given to assume it is a respected source. How much Un-diminishable Authority and Essential Truth can you wring out of, “strong, immediate, commonsense intuition,” or, ”…an innate, inborn, natural power of human beings?” And yet, this is the scary part, this is the foundation upon which society is built!
