Do Free Will and Objective Reality Exist? Explored Through Rene Descartes’ Mind-Body Distinction

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Yurui’s Summary

• This article is mostly just brain candy. Realistically, these are unanswerable questions, but immensely interesting to consider.

• Free will probably doesn’t exist! Our identities and actions are shaped by the environment in which we are raised in. However, twins who are genetically similar will be different people. Without control over our environment, and without ‘free will’, we can only try to do the best with what we can control, and what we have now.

• Is the mind separate from the body, or do they have a symbiotic relationship? I think the latter is true, but it is purely a hypothesis. Who knows what the mind truly is?

• Do objective truth and reality exist? I think that subjective ideologies arise when they are informed by objective reality, but when subjective ideologies are consistent, they in turn become the objective reality (to humans who experience the consistency). Whether there is an objective reality, we shall never know.

Free Will

I was lucky enough to bump heads with a lady with a PhD in Psychology a few weeks ago. One of the most interesting topics that came up in our discussion was the existence of free will. Personally, I had only done some light reading in the subject matter after first being introduced to it last year at a summer program. More recently, I read Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, in which he goes to great depth and detail in describing various cognitive biases. Furthermore, by coincidence, my English tutor is a Psychology/Law graduate who’s always been up for interesting conversations relating to philosophy and psychology.

The question is this - do humans have free will over their emotions, thoughts and actions?

I guess the intuitive answer is this: “Of course I have free will! Why wouldn’t I? Why would I have clicked onto your stupid website then?” I used to be of the same conviction. I make so many decisions in my life and I do things in a conscious manner. I choose my own pathway in life because I have ‘agency’.

But in reality, and after a good amount of thinking and reading about the distinction between our System 1 ‘fast’ thinking system, and our System 2 ‘slow’ thinking system, I’ve realised that I lack control over a lot of things that go on in my mind. Intuitive judgements arise and act as anchors for our more rational System 2 thinking, and said intuitive judgements are quite uncontrollable, especially because they exist unconsciously. I don’t think that I have free will. There’s so many things that I can’t control. Even my identity, the core of my individuality, was very much shaped by my upbringing, the friends I am surrounded with, and the overall environment I live in. I’m lucky to be living a very privileged life; my environment was very healthy growing up, but I think that a lot of my judgements have been affected as a result. Of course, everyone has a unique identity that was formed by things out of their control; for better or for worse, I don’t think humans have complete free will.

This isn’t an excuse to become a criminal and cite your ‘subconscious mind’ and ‘intuitive thoughts’ to justify rash actions. Instead, I think it’s something that’s extremely interesting to consider and be aware of. As with most concepts in philosophy and psychology, I don’t know if I have the ability to innovate and research novel concepts, but instead try my best to absorb and understand as much as I can to derive relevance and applicable conclusions to my life.

I think something really interesting is the societal expectation for balance between masculinity and femininity in individuals.

Chris Bumstead spoke about this (slighly paraphrased): “In traditional masculinity, an individual often feels alone, feels pressure to hold things in, that you shouldn’t share your emotions or lean on people, and carry stuff in themselves to be ‘good enough’. A real man needs to be confident and comfortable enough to embrace feminine energy, be emotional, but also have that masculine side. I’m going to be emotional right now but still go reach my dreams, be disciplined, but also accept that sometimes I’m going to break down and feel emotional and ask for help and people to lean on. Balance the two.”

I think that because there’s an absence of genuine emotional connection between modern men, masculinity dictates that we should be Stoic, we can’t cry, and that we have to soldier on, there’s such a big problem with mens’ mental health. We should have a safe space to process our emotions and freely talk about them.

I think this really goes to show the impact of environment on things that we can’t control. Especially as a teenager guy, I think there’s an increasingly ‘toxic’ perception of what it means to be a man. Why don’t we consider what it means to be human? It’s okay to feel emotions, and it’s not as easy as just ‘letting go’ and ‘moving on’.

However, the Psychology PhD brought up the example of twins - two children who grew up in exactly the same environment (well not exactly, that’d be impossible), who are genetically identical but still have two individual identities. I guess this is a nice counterargument of the ‘non-existent’ free-will argument, but honestly, this is such a complex question that it’d get even more convoluted by grasping at more examples. If there was an easy answer, then there wouldn’t be a debate, would there?

The bottom line is that without control over our environment, and without ‘free will’, we can only try to do the best with what we can control, and what we have now.

Rene Descartes’ Mind-Body Distinction

Recently, I’ve found Rene Descartes’ Mind-Body Distinction very interesting; it refers to how the mind is separate to the body. The two stances are as thus: that the mind exists within the body and dies when the body dies (a symbiotic relationship), and that the mind exists independent from the body. Materialism (a subset of monism) is the theory that our minds and bodies are indistinguishable, whereas dualism is the theory that they are distinct, yet linked in some way, and therefore it is possible for one to exist without the other.

Our sensory organs of the body inform our physical brain, and hence our mind, what we are experiencing. I can wake up and see the walls of my bedroom around me. I can see it, yet I am not touching it. The mystery is how my neurons contact my mind or consciousness, and create the images of my bedroom. The question is, if there truly exists a mind independent of the body

Personally, I think that the mind is biologically within the body, that is, all experiences that the mind has are in conjunction with the body. Even when we do not experience a body (i.e. in dreams), the mind exists physically within the body. If I have a body, I need my mind to give it direction; if I have a mind, I need a body for my agency.

One of my mates thinks that the mind can exist without a physical entity. I disagree; what you see is all there is (thanks Daniel Kahneman)! If there is no physical home for the mind to reside, then it cannot exist; the mind is tangible through our thoughts, beliefs and actions. When we die, it all disappears, as it no longer has a medium with which to communication.

I think it would be nice to have an afterlife, but I’ve resigned to the fact that after we die, we’re probably just going to be in dreamless sleep forever. It’s a warning, but also liberating in that life is finite, and it’s such a blessing to be alive, acknowledge that and live every day to the fullest. I think I’ve shifted my view on death from something that will take life away from me, to something that enables a life of agency because I can’t waste time on my phone if time is finite.

Objective Reality

I used to think that objective reality did not exist. Every situation is a subjective interpretation of the world which exists in your head. The world is what you perceive it to be. Happiness depends on how you explain life to yourself. If you see things in a positive light, it becomes reality; the same goes for when you see things in a negative light.

There’s this Harry Potter quote I never fully understood until today.

Harry asks: “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
Dumbledore replies: “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

The world may very well just exist in my head. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not ‘real’. Not to me at least. For example, if you’re walking along the street and you get stabbed, you can just take some morphine and cover up the wound. Once your memory is wiped, you don’t even know if you were stabbed or not. This is an extremely polarised example, but I hope you get the gist.

There is no objective truth; only shared subjective perspectives that we all believe in. When we all believe in the same thing, I guess that’s what constitutes an ‘objective truth’. Everyone in the world may very well not exist. We as humans cannot control the world. We can only control our actions, reactions, emotions, and thoughts. That is how we perceive the world.

Life is what we make it to be.

However, after a discussion with a few mates, I’ve resigned to the fact that objective reality exists - but with a nuance. For example, the English language is an example of a subjective construct - one that only exists if you understand the complexities of the language. However, how did this subjective ideology come to be? It had to be informed by objective reality. However, when all humans have this consistent subjective ideology of language, then it in turn becomes objective reality. Hence, there is an objective truth, but it exists as a limit that no human will ever experience; only one that is consistent among every human.

Basically, subjective ideologies arise when they are informed by objective reality, but when subjective ideologies are consistent, they in turn become the objective reality (to humans who experience the consistency). Whether there is an objective reality, we shall never know. Reality shapes ideology, which in turn shapes reality.

I hope that my musings on Free Will, Descartes’ Mind-Body Distinction, and Objective Reality were interesting pieces of brain candy.

Yurui