Oct 4, 2024

Am I actually Free?

an (edited) excerpt from my journal

Once I had an epiphany and then I thought, "I am capable of recognising my deeper self... That, I can BE myself, that I have the choice to know myself."

Probably a long-shot, but I think that because I have a choice to know myself, I am a free being. I don't know what you might call this, but does seem like another cogito ergo sum.

But, am I actually free?

Psychologically? No. Our "reason" is a slave to stimuli. It is biased. This quote comes to mind:

"If the content of a screen saver on an irrelevant computer can affect your willingness to help strangers without your being aware of it, how free are you?"
-Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow, p. 128. About Priming Effect

I am not a free-being in my beliefs as well.
Because many of those are a result of the knowledge we gained in our ancestral environment over hundreds of millions of years. I think Locke's tabula rasa is probably not valid.

Physically? Perhaps not either. As humans, we succumb to bodily desires and we feel pain despite not choosing it.

If we're not free both in our minds and our body, what is left for us?

Now, I can't think of anything but to have hope. Yet, I know that hope doesn't bring free-will. Optimism only makes it worse in anticipation.