Plague Journal, Determinism & a Rabbit’s Behind
I was a participant in a rollicking discussion on the topic of determinism and free will earlier in the week. The topic is an ancient philosophical conundrum how the appearance of choice, true freedom can be real, given that cause and effect are seamless. That cause and effect are inviolate is the underlying premise of modern science. Science is the child of reason, the conviction that the causes and effects within nature can be isolated, so that we may learn the “laws” of Nature. Within Nature, chains of cause and effect are an intersecting matrix of phenomena. Only by imagination are we able to conceive in the abstract a procedure for isolating conditions that often appear together, — and thus a critical experiment is born. If we take the trouble to perform the experiment, what might we learn? This is a rough sketch of the underpinnings of science.
I thought about our discussion while working in the yard yesterday. Another session of yard work, opportunity to add the finishing touches. Springtime is high time, for shaping the beds, cultivating, watering, etc. so that the bios of Nature is crafted to maximize the aesthetic effect for the impending weeks of summer. Timing is everything. There is propitious time for doing what is to be done.
According to habit my camera was at hand. I took a few photos of blossoms, some volunteer and wild, and others like the roses, planted with intention. The photos are posted here for your enjoyment. My camera was ready when I encountered a new-born rabbit. The rabbit was partially hidden behind a fern. The diminutive mammal’s behind was prominently visible. I glimpsed the rabbit’s eye, on the other side of the fern gazing at me. I took a picture.
In the mind of that rabbit, it is hidden from a potential predator, the human biped, many times its size. The rabbit feels that it is concealed by cover. Does the rabbit have the capacity to reflect upon its situation? Or are the 29 species of rabbits confined to the changing effect of bodily sensations, to feelings/sensations of hunger, of threat, of a urge to mate, etc.? Does it just react? I could not ask the rabbit, so I’ll never know with certainty. Does the rabbit exercise a virtual distance from the environment? Does the rabbit have the advantage of consciousness, — a spectatorial distance from the conditions of it’s existence? Does the rabbit “know” its environment in a manner that allows it to calculate ways to fulfill its needs?
Such questions arise in my mind, the lingering effect of an exchange of philosophical ideas between friends. The impasse between freedom and determinism admits no easy solution, given our habits of expression when we use the word “freedom.” At the very least, yard work has become more interesting.
2 thoughts on “Plague Journal, Determinism & a Rabbit’s Behind”
As you know, we have discussed determinism multiple times in the past. I have always felt that we are indeed products of cause and effect and that every move we make, every breath we take (to quote song lyrics in the tradition of this blog) can be calculated prior to to actual act. As conscious beings, we all would rather not buy into this theory. We like to believe we have free will because without that belief we are just going through the predetermined motions of life.
There is nothing wrong with setting aside the science of cause and effect in this instance. Life is more enjoyable when we believe we have some form of control over our personal reactions, thoughts, and motivations. Your bunny is just as much a part of that cause and effect, but it doesn’t worry about philosophical issues. It is reacting to the sounds and sights within its immediate environment, for all it knows, that environment is the entirety of the world.
And so we remain relatively safe in our delusion of free will. This will not change even if humanity is able to survive into the future, for curiosity and wonder are feelings that give us joie de vivre and that is why we continue to want to breathe.
Determinism, or stated with greater clarity, “the uniformity of cause and effect within a closed system” is an item of knowledge. There’s no doubt that we are all products of cause and effect, and all that we are, everything is owed to the past; we are in debt to prior physical states, and to the ancestors which preceded us. This offers much to think about: the colonialism of our past — there’s a butchers bill to be paid for that. Also, the slavery countenanced by the founders of our nation, the high-flying rhetoric about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” notwithstanding, the bill must be settled for the past and continued subservience of people of color in our society.
Clearly we have good reason for “feeling” there’s no necessary link with the past. Feeling that we are “free” to chose independently.
Yet, cause and effect is something we cannot do without. Thinking critically, doing philosophy would be impossible without the reliable response of my retina and brain to the words on a page, or the pixels on this screen. The order of cause and effect is nothing less than we need. The alternative would be the often eruption of chaos, which would be demoralizing. Nothing of consequence could be executed.
At the same time I’d not want to do without the language of freedom. There are many things that I desire to express using those terms. Such as philosophizing about a bunny!