"The World of Thought"

I have mentioned previously that I consider human beings simply another species of animal with no unique place in the evolutionary process. Such differences that exist between humankind and other animal species are entirely fortuitous and do not translate into a superiority for humankind. Thus when I write that I think thoughts, have dreams, imagine situations, contrive explanations it does not mean that having this capability confers any kind of precedence of humankind over other animals. Man has developed this what I term “The World of Thought” because of evolution giving him such features as upright stature, the mobility of his hands, the ability to communicate via speech. From these humankind has, by a slow accumulative process formed a picture of the world that surrounds him.

Humankind has constructed a world of concepts that are transferred from one generation of humans to the next. These concepts, being subject to the variability of intellect and perception in humans, do not necessarily mirror what the actual physical world is. The mind itself which contains this world of thought is actually part of the physical world and subject to the same cause and effect relationships that have governed the world since its inception. Although this world of thought can recognize the true picture of the real world outside it, it can also generate concepts and ideas that do not represent reality. Thus religions are formed from erroneous explanations of the physical world.

I return in this writing to the matter of free will. As I have written above I sense that my life has been entirely shaped by the events and situations I have encountered in my lifetime. Some of the events are epic in scale, other[s] less momentous on a sliding scale to the happenstances of everyday occurrences. Several things about this confluence of forces acting on me as an individual, and indeed on every human being, occur to me. The first I have already dwelt on — that each and every turning point in a human [life] is determined in direction by the forces acting on the individual at the time.

A second consideration is that at any turning point in a human’s life, the being is acted on only by the forces present at the time. It is true of course that all human events comprise [a] matrix of forces that in concert determine the direction a human acts. But the argument against free will is that the essence of free will is the recognition and assessment of the forces acting on the individual. If this assessment is obscured by lack of information on the forces acting, and the choices possible, how can a person exercise “free will”?

I have recently read of experiments which indicate that learned experiences that are subconsciously capable of affecting a person’s behavior do occur. How an individual acts is determined, in part at least, by elements of this response mechanism that act independently of his awareness, The science of psychiatry is certainly based on the concept that there are in humans hidden impulses of which the individual is unaware. These impulses direct how a person responds in a given situation without the individual considering the forces acting on him as such. This lack of awareness is for me one of the most important reasons arguing against the existence of free will.

I want to turn at this point to a consideration of what I have termed “The World of Thought.” A part of what exists in this world of thought has been verified by a long period of interaction of the individual with the physical world around him — it has been subjected [to] repeated and numerous interactions with the physical world and the picture of the world of thought is a valid one. But this world of thought is an imperfect one in that the cause and effect relationships in the human mind need not be in accord entirely with physical reality. Included in these concepts are superstitions, religious beliefs, biases — if you will, the concept of free will. These concepts are oftentimes appealing to the individual in his or her relationship to the real world and represent in the mind a sort of defense mechanism in handling the problems confronting the individual. They have an allure that humans cannot resist.

How did I reach this point in the thinking process that has gone ahead and developed in my own personal world of thought? At the time when I experience a heart attack some ten years ago my reaction was that I was motivated to write down what I recalled of my life. In part this motivation was the feeling I had that I missed knowing what transpired in the lives of my immediate ancestors, particularly in the case of my father. He never talked much about his earlier days, growing up on his parents’ farm, his schooling and working experiences. I thought I would write about what had transpire in my life so that my children (assuming that they might be interested) would be able to know about my life, prior to the time that they were involved in it. I suspect also that writing about my life was, in a way, an attempt at immortalizing my life in that there was a record of it. A record that is beyond what could have been determined sometime in the future from public, church and other records.

My present intent, after these introductory remarks and conclusions about the course of my life is to review, edit, change and perhaps amplify what I wrote some ten years ago. As before, I am really under no illusion that what I shall produce be of any interest of significance but if nothing else it will be a summing up as I approach the end of my days. For I feel after the minor stroke I had a year or so ago that my days are surely numbered. Not that I regret this prospect, as I wrote earlier in this preface I am weary of existence.