I find the experience of free will very compelling.
I like this simple one line poem because it juxtaposes two seeming opposites. Free will is often viewed as some kind of absolute. Compulsion is on the other end of the spectrum, except that we also typically view it as some kind of absolute, that which one has no choice about. Of course, this reminds me of perhaps the only quote I can recall from the complex, sophisticated and difficult-to-read author and philosopher, John Paul Sartre: “We are condemned to be free.” I view neither free will nor compulsion as absolute. Free will always has limits, and the very existence of free will and human beings bring some freedom to any situation no matter how compulsory we view it. However, let’s get back to the poem. What I mean by finding the experience of free will very compelling, is that it is predictably surprising how free we are, meaning that we always have a choice in any situation. By exercising our free will, our awareness of this essential and irreducible freedom can grow. We are faced with an infinite number of choices at any given moment. If you don’t believe this, you may have just flunked the first question of a creativity test. The reason I like Jean-Paul Sartre’s quote so much is that it also juxtaposes two apparent opposites. Being condemned, or forced, to be free. Of course, this is what drives John Paul Sartre into an existential frenzy, being unable to pin down any ground of our being, or God, he is left with a conundrum of being condemned by some unknown or unknowable reality, yet mystically or coincidentally, he happens to experience the good fortune of gaining freedom within this reality. In fact, freedom can be viewed as a nuisance, in that facing that infinite number of choices at any given moment, and seeming to have no ultimate basis for making any particular choice, leaves us to our own subjective devices. I actually find it kind of funny and ironic that Sartre felt so compelled to find the determinants (sic) of free will. Of course, I’m teasing him a bit. More fairly, he did groundbreaking work in epistemology, the study of the limits of human knowledge. Quite obviously, one cannot find the determinants of free will. However, one may be able to map out certain boundaries to where and how free will operates. Since he won the Nobel prize for literature, I’ll assume that is genius exceeds mine in this respect, or perhaps, no one could understand what he was saying and thought that giving him a prize might be appropriate to not appear stupid. In my own experiments with free will, I feel compelled to experiment more — to exercise my free will more and more. This seems to be more practical than writing a 300+ page book about the structures of consciousness. But that’s just my choice…
