Is man free?

On a speech last October 29, 2012 at the Bon Mot Book Club, which I was privy to watch on Youtube, Sam Harris argued that free will is an illusion, man is not really free as he is governed by uncontrollable variables like chemicals, genes, upbringing and life experiences.

According to Sam Harris, there is no evidence for free will. He cited for example the case for serial killers, whose behavior to kill people is basically beyond their control as they are determined by their genes. They have the so-called "sociopathic soul." And they really have no choice but to kill people as it is programmed in their genes that they will be so. Harris cited as an example Charles Whitman who in 1966 killed his wife and mother plus 13 other people at the University of Texas and wounding 33 others. An autopsy later revealed that a glioblastoma was pressing upon his amygdala, the seat of passions and emotions. Harris cited the case of Whitman as a clear example that free will is an illusion, since Whitman's actions were controlled by the tumor. Whitman's suicide letter also revealed that he could not understand his actions lately, admitting that he was a reasonably intelligent person but has recently been consumed by irrational thoughts that he could not understand.

Brain science is a complicated endeavor and it is frankly, like the other sciences, a continuing saga into the unknown. However, to suggest that all who have tumors in the brain are somehow driven to kill is simply preposterous. There have been serial killers who have no brain tumor, although science tells us that there is a particular physiologic characteristics of the serial killer brain - still, much research has still to be done with regards to the matter. Indeed, there could be a possibility that even those who have never killed their entire lives might share a physiologic brain similarity with serial killers.

Harris also said we cannot control our thoughts as they just appear in our consciousness. He further asserts that we cannot control our thoughts until we become aware of them - so hence the absence of free will. He says: "Thoughts just emerge in consciousness... and if you become aware only of your thoughts until they arrive at you, where is freedom of will?"

Our thoughts are complex interactions of chemical processes, I give to that. It is true that we cannot always control what we think, but some Buddhist monks and yogi practitioners apparently can control their body temperatures. Also, thoughts are mental processes that are affected not only by the present, by chemical processes currently undergoing in the brain, but also memories and external conditions. There are some people who have remarkable powers of concentration that they can block other stimuli to focus only on a singular thought. We can also decide to think only about certain things, topics and persons - and some people, like Buddhist monks and Hindu Sadhu's (Hindu holy men), can actually sustain doing nothing but meditating over years.

He adds, "You cannot honestly take credit for you unconscious mental life." I agree, we cannot take credit for the unconscious mental life, it is something we cannot control in most respects, as they are one side of the human psyche, but constant reflection, meditation and even analysis on them will enable us to control how we respond to things that trigger them to the conscious.

Harris also says: "You have voices in your head that says things... it says things that are completely unconstrained at times...." This true, the human mind is a veritable forest of mysteries. Thoughts just pop in and out, most we cannot control, but that is part of the human experience, we cannot control the internal processes of our body as if it were the case, man as a creature will become extinct. Harris cited for example the production of RBC's as being beyond the conscious control of man. That is part of the evolutionary cycle, if breathing for example is dependent upon memory, the mental toll of constantly remembering it would be a strain on the evolutionary viability of man. Just as animals of the lower kind do not consciously control their breathing cycles - although during hibernating animals can condition the body to lower heart rate and metabolic processes, they do so unconsciously.

Free will is part of the human experience simply because Man can choose to be who he wants to be, how he wants to be. If we go back to the existentialist philosophers of the 20th century like Jean-Paul Sartre, man is free because he is "thrown" into the world and he has no choice but to choose.

While it is true that hormones and chemical processes affects the thinking processes of man and that the physiologic integrity of the different cellular structures of the body determines man's thinking processes, in the end, Man still has the ultimate power to succumb to such inclinations or not.

Charles Whitman might have been affected by the tumor pressing on his amygdala, but not alll who have brain tumors become serial killers, just as most serial killers have no brain tumors. It is also to be noted that many people who do have brain tumors turn up to leave normal, fulfilling lives.

Man is an interplay of not just chemical, biological, genetic and environmental factors, all of which exert on man's thoughts and on his ability to discern. He has free will because he can choose to believe he is free - that is its mystery.