And a related question: In theological determinism there's a teleology-things are heading in a definite
direction that cannot be derailed. (I don't believe this, but many do.) What is the deterministic naturalist's
teleology?
And if people aren't really free, why would they "feel" free? That doesn't make sense!Peace,
Preston
Dear Preston,
We have ventured onto ground that is one of the major interests of my advisor, William B. Provine. He's a
historian of science and is writing a book on the implications of evolution, and I just finished commenting
on his chapter on free will. He is the expert and if he wasn't so burdened this semester with teaching
evolution, I would pass along your e-mail to him and let him explain (he is masterful at explanation).
There is something I might not have confessed to you before. I believe human beings would be much,
much happier if they studied biology. All intellectual questions revolve around biology, whether we admit
it or not. It is pathetic that biology is treated as an elective science and we are "taught" math as if it is the
most important thing to master. Much strife occurs because the average citizen is completely in the dark
about how life works.
Free will is one of those questions that is directly affected by biology. If someone is ignorant of
biology, ignorant of what is going on biologically to produce feelings of "freedom," it is difficult to move
forward in the discussion. Much literature on this topic has been awkwardly advanced by people who
confuse the issue because they know nothing about biology. Then the reply always comes, "Well, what
does knowledge have to do with whether we are free or not?" or "You can't tell me I'm not free just
because you know more about how the brain works" and on and on. My reply: "Yes, I can." In my
interviews with him, Richard Dawkins put it this way: "The illusion of free will is so powerful that we
might as well assume we have it." He said this as an off-handed comment but, indeed, he believes we do
not have free will.
Brains evolved the capacity to communicate with other brains by means of language and cultural
traditions. But the new milieu of cultural tradition opens up new possibilities for self-replicating entities.
... These new replicators, which I call memes to distinguish them from genes, can propagate themselves
from brain to brain, from brain to book, from brain to computer, from computer to computer.
Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist (1996)
Feelings are traits that evolve just like the opposable thumb. Thoughts and ideas, however, might not be
adaptations at all. A meme is just an idea or a thought process (brain function) that spreads throughout a
population.
For instance, the idea that we should wash our hands after we go to the bathroom. That is an idea that
got started because in the days before sanitary life, people associated disease with touching our genitalia.
Indeed even today it's not hard to find companies that sell disinfectants perpetuating this meme, and there
have been very few studies citing data that washing hands five times a day has anything to do with disease