Ok, earlier today I had said that i felt that at some point in time the human race had free will, but now all we have is determinism. Now that I have had time to think it out, I think that i can word it better so that it actually makes sense.
Ok. First, we had cavemen. Originally they probably did not have language. They had the free will to do whateve they chose. They develop language. They begin to communicate with one another. They begin to decide what is right and what is wrong. This is passed down to their children. As time goes on, and language becomes more refined, they begin to make more guidelines and refine the ones that they already had. This allows the later generations even less free will as to what to do. At the current point in time, very much is determined for us by the rules and guidelines that date all the way back to the cavemen.
Example: A prelinguistic lives in a hut. Another prelinguistic breaks into his hut to steal something. The first prelinguistic, fearing for his life kills the prelinguistic breaking in. No repercussions. time goes on, this is shunned. you should not kill or attempt to kill, no matter what the circumstance. today if someone breaks into your house and you shoot them, if you maim them and they survive, you are the one who is going to get punished.
Does this make any sense? Maybe I used a bad example....But, all I am trying to say is that very far in the past, we had free will, but we lost it, because once language and communication came about there were rules. the rules got stricter-even the rules that are not neccessarily legal rules, the mores of the culture-and now our lives are determined.
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2 comments:
I think your examples show, not that we once had free will and lost it, but that our contemporary reliance on language (in contrast to prelinguistic thought) can circumscribe, shape, or otherwise influence the scope and nature of our inquiries.
thanks for sharing your cave-person analogy. I appreciate your exposing me to new thoughts.
I also like reading PJ's comment on your post - its all grist for the ever-waiting mill.
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