Free Will; The Foundation of the Free World; H. E. Schlichting, Jr.

FREE WILL: THE FOUNDA TION OF THE FREE WORLD THE FREE way of life rests upon the conviction that men are freely willing creatures with the capacity to choose between alternatives. Freedom of the will is man's pri mordial liberty, the fountainhead from which every other freedom stems. The free way of life is not simply the absence of arbitrary, external controls-the absence of outside bondage reflects and implements man's inner liberty. We favor the free society because every variety of totalitarian order violates the demands of man's na ture. But if free will is an illusion, as many contempo rary philosophers assert, we cannot complain about the massive denial of free choice which is a collectivist so ciety. Totalitarianism is the end result of the denial of inner liberty, however much determinists may disavow this ultimate consequence of their position. The question of determinism or free will is a philo sophical matter, but determinists frequently base their case on what they regard as the scientific method.

A distinguished British scientist, the late Sir F. S. Dr. Schlichting is .an independent research biologist at Port Sani lac, Michigan. 131 132 HAROLD E. SCHLICHTING, JR. Taylor, states the position as follows: "Science finds no evidence of free will in matter and energy .... Matter and energy, however organized, have no free will. So, if man consists of nothing else than matter and energy, then man has no free will. The materialist, like every one else, has the experience of free will and acts as if he were free, for no one could live without doing so; but he regards this sensation of free will as an illusion."1 Thus we are not really free; we only think we are! According to Freud, "No act is uncaused and the illu sion of free will simply comes from the fact that some of our motives are unconscious."2 Dr. E. G. Boring of Harvard University goes further, saying that "freedom, when you believe it is operating, always resides in an area of ignorance. If there is a known law, you do not have freedom .... Both free dom and chance are terms that. are used when efficient causes of present events· are not known and often appear unknowable."3 This is another way of saying that our concept of free will is due to our ignorance! He adds that belief in human freedom is merely "a useful super stition" but concludes "to get rid of this concept would change the whole of our civilization."

Obviously, the despots of today, as of yesterday, are 1 Taylor, F. S. The Fourfold Vision. London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1946. p. 58. 2 McClelland, D. C. "Freud and Hull: Pioneers in Scientific Psy chology," American Scientist. 45:101-1~. 1957. 8 Boring, E. G. "When Is Human Behavior Predetermined?" The Scientific Monthly. pp. 189-196. April 1957.

FREE WILL: FOUNDATION OF THE FREE WORLD 133 attempting to annihilate the concept of free will. If the basic pillars of our civilization can be shaken, their hope is that the house will crumble. In fact, denial of free will has been the basis for all totalitarian systems and their power over men! The arguments against free will may be grouped into the following !major categories: 1. All of our actions are determined by our body chemistry and interrelated past experiences; they are determined according to the laws of physics and chemistry. 2. No act is uncaused and free will is an illusion. 3. The belief in free will is due to ignorance of ante cedent causes. 4. The question of free will vs. determinism is un answerable. It would require a book to explore all of the conse quences of these propositions. However, three of these seem most apparent to me. First, for people living by the Judeo-Christian concept of life, free will is essential. The disobedience of the first man to God and its conse quences presupposes free will.

An outstanding American geneticist, Dr. T. Dobzhan sky, made the following comments: "Ants and termites are neither heroes when they defend their own nests, nor villains when they rob those of their neigh bors. They are devoid of virtues and vices because they lack the freedom to decide between possible alternative courses of action. . . . Insect behavior is, then, not reducible to a common ethical measure with 134 HAROLD· E. SCHLICHTING, JR. human actions. Praise and blame have meaning only in connection with acts in which the individual is at least to some extent a free agent .... Moral rightness or wrongness have meaning only in connection with per sons who are free agents, and who are consequently able to choose between different· ideas and between possible courses of action. Ethics presupposes freedom .... Ethics, as such, have no genetic basis and are not the product of biological evolution."4 Thus for the determinists who base their philosophy upon genetics and evolution, there actually is no ethical system for them to adopt!

Second, our entire judicial system is premised up~n the existence of free will; man is presumed responsible for his actions. There could be no moral law and order without it. The act of justice, is to give each man his due and is preceded by an act whereby something becomes his due. Therefore, one's right must precede justice! As Josef Pieper, a noted philosopher, has stated, "We can not state the basis of a Right and hence a judicial obli gation, unless we have a concept of man, of human na ture."5 If in truth there is no distinctly human nature then there can be no human rights or justice. This is the formal justification for every exercise of totalitarian power. The existence of free will is essential to this con cept of human nature upon w,hich our justice is based. Third, there could be no virtue because virtue is a state of character concerned with choice. If the latter •Dobzhansky, T. The Biological Basis of Human Freedom. New York: Columbia University Press, 1956. pp. 93-94, 132.

Ii Pieper, J. Justice. New York: Pantheon Books, 1955. pp. 1-24.

FREE WILL: FOUNDATION, OF THE FREE WORLD 135 is taken away, there is noway for goodness to assert itself. These three, Judeo-Christian belief, justice, and vir tue, are all interrelated in our Western civilization. They are the basis for our civilization, and it is obvious that our way of life, as we have known it, cannot exist if we accept the teaching of those who contend that there is no free will. This is not a one-sided argument. Contrary to many modern teachings, the concept of free will is supported by numerous philosophers. Unfortunately, most of them are dead! It is auspicious, however, that their ideas "live" on. Even though ignored or defamed, the materialists have not succeeded in destroying them. The question of freedom is one of the most difficult, most rewarding, and most pressing in metaphysics. For a thinker of the stature of Descartes it was free will alone or liberty of choice which he declared to be so great an idea that he could conceive no other to be superior.

Uncoerced Choice What do we mean by free will? We may use Web ster's definition as a starting point: "Free will: Un hampered or uncoerced choice. The doctrine that hu man beings are not controlled in their choices by physi cally or divinely imposed necessity." Free will cannot, of course, be expressed under coercion or irrationality by its very definition.

136 HAROLD E. SCHLICHTING" JR. To concede that the free will question is unanswer able, is really not to confront the problem at all. For one meets problems and must· make decisions through out his entire life; to do otherwise would be to merely vegetate! It would be extremely inconsistent if a person lives part of the time as if he were truly free and at other times as if he were not free at all. To state that no act is uncaused and that therefore free will is an illusion is to misunderstand the free will position. The proponents of free will do not claim that their actions are uncaused but that the individual causes them from within. Indeterminism is the untenable view that events are not caused. Advocates of free will are not materialistic determinists; they believe that the laws of chemistry and physics do not apply to the will and intellect-these being nonmaterial entities. Those who would have us believe that free will is due only to our ignorance are merely stating that in the final analysis it is an illusion. Some men are more ignorant than others and this ignorance in a sense makes them less free. This fact, however, does not nullify the concept of free will.

Dr. Etienne Gilson, a scholastic philosopher, proposes that man is both free and determined, i.e., man is free to choose the means to the end but is not free to choose the end itself. In "choosing the means to the end," Gil son writes, "the choice is free beyond all doubt. Man indeed does not choose his end; necessarily he wants to be happy merely on account of his nature as man; but various routes to happiness lie open, and he is free to FREE WILL: FOUNDATION OF THE FREE WORLD 137 choose what seems to him the best for the purpose."6 Human happiness is the determined end for all men be cause of their very nature; man cannot will to be un happy! All particular decisions are directed toward this end. Since choice is not concerned with the end but with the means to it, man does not choose of necessity but freely. Free will implies the power to choose a good or poor means to an end depending on the rationality of the individual and his desires for what he believes will bring happiness. He may choose any of a multitude of possibilities for obtaining his happiness.

The truth of free will can only be discovered and proven within ourselves! Why did I choose to do a cer tain act? I chose it as a means to some end which may be called the attainment of my happiness. Thus, I am self directing and I believe it because there is no conclusive evidence to the contrary. Frank Chodorov in his "Free Will and the Market place" (THE FREEMAN, January 1959) stated: "Many per sons, who would abolish free choice in themarket place, logically conclude that man is not endowed with free will, that free will is a fiction, that man is merely a product of his environment. This premise ineluctably leads them to denial of the soul, and of course, the denial of God." Every truly great man has risen above his environment! He not merely comes from it, as a part, but he adds to it. Society has its impact on man but it must also be remem bered that men have their impact on society. Actually, e Gilson, Etienne, The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. pp. 319-321.

138 HAROLD E. SCHLICHTING" JR. they make it what it is! This fact is forgotten in this age of socialization. Many Factors Affect Choice Body chemistry and our past experiences are certainly important in influencing our choice of action. They al low for our selection of alternatives but they do not determine them. Our past experiences and body chem istry "set the stage" for the operation of our intellect and will to make a choice from genuine alternatives of action. However, the intellect and will are "actors" which do not have to follow the script! Our behavior in carrying out some action we have decided upon as a means to achieve our end, is subject to physical-chemical laws, biological· coordination, and our reason. Because a series of choices in your past influences your present choice, one cannot say that you were determined to choose as you did due to your past experiences. It has not been proven that your past experiences are deter mined. This materialistic determinism is only an as sumption of those who do not believe in free will.

Injection of "truth serum" and physical violence can narrow the alternatives between which a choice is pos sible. But one is still free to go counter to this coercion even until irrationality or unconsciousness results. As the martyrs of history have shown, men, in fact, have re sisted these forces and have given up their lives rather than to select the alternative choice. By their very suf fering and death support is given to the concept that FREE WILL: FOUNDATION OF THE FREE WORLD 139 man has free will. Chemical, physical, and psychological forces do not rob man of his free will. When one does submit to force of any kind, it does not mean that he does not have free will but that the freedom of action is denied to him! Some would claim the martyrs could not have done otherwise, that they had to suffer and die because of their past experiences. It is easy and natural to choose nonsuffering but very difficult and indeed against our materialistic nature to choose suffering. The material ist, logically, could not be an intentional martyr. Cer tainly, there have been no martyrs for the stand against man's freedom!

For most of us man has both a material and a spirit ual nature fused into one being. Man's spiritual nature is not physically determined; man develops his moral nature based upon both the material and the spiritual aspects. The spiritual aspect can be demonstrated to exist empirically by the very behavior of men them selves. For example, the Gene Theory is important in biology because it explains, in part, the transmission of traits passed from parents to offspring. The truth of this theory is based upon its empirical verification and its predictive value. Similarily, the Judeo-Christian con cept of life is important because it explains, in part, the whole nature of man, his origin, and destiny. The truth of this concept is based upon empirical verification (i.e., behavior) and its predictive value for man in attaining happiness. Both the Gene Theory and the Judeo-Chris tian concept of life go beyond empiricism itself to an over140 HAROLD E. SCHLIGHTING" JR.

all explanation of reality. Some scientists accept the first but reject the second proposition! In his explanation of man the materialist reduces man to one aspect of his nature, and then uses this part in his attempt to explain the whole. As far as most thought ful persons are concerned materialism has not been suc cessful in explaining man. In fact, they have not as yet given a satisfactory explanation of the basic tenet of their belief, namely, matter. Human freedom does not mean that we can do any thing we wish; it means that we can do some things we wish, and it is very important to know what those things are. Free will can be limited only in the carrying out of actions, there being no thought control as yet in the free world, as set forth in Orwell's I984. Of course, there are some events which happen to us through no choice of our own. These may be due to natural catas trophies or the decisions of others. Our birth and usu ally our death are not of our own free choosing; yet their occurrence does not invalidate our concept of free will.

The following may limit our free actions: 1. Our native intelligence, which is hereditary. 2. Our total experiences in life, which are environ mental and fall into three main restrictions: a. Faulty education b. Socialism (where human relationships are co erced) c. Poverty (If the essentials necessary to sustain life are lacking, our behavior is influenced but not determined.) FREE WILL: FOUNDATION OF THE FREE WORLD 141 Nevertheless, our free will still operates even under the most adverse conditions. The act of free choice is an act of both the will and intellect. The acknowledgment of these nonmaterial entities is essential to our free way of life. According to Gilson, "wherever there is intelligence there is free will; and the more intelligence there is by so much is there more liberty." Perhaps an explanation as to why some persons do not believe in free will is im plied in the preceding quotation.

Much more has been and can be written on the con cept of free will and its importance to our way of life. It is one of those fundamental truths which must con stantly be pondered anew, lest inferior and even untrue propositions replace them. It is up to each individual in the free world to safeguard these truths upon which our freedom is based.