Hello everyone, this is my entry into the conflictprompt contest hosted by the Fictioneers. I am not much of a writer but I liked the topic and wanted to give it a shot. Here is my story about a philosopher and his struggle with fate. All images are from pixabay.
Edit: man, I never got so many upvotes, thank you for all your support everyone!
It was a stormy night in August, and the electricity cut off at the house of Jeremy Jameston. A young philosopher, Jermey decided he would pass the time by pondering life's questions. Morals, science, religion, nothing was out of the realm of Jeremy's interest, however he did stumble upon one he rather wishes he hadn't.
He had decided to ponder the notion of free will, and came to a conclusion he didn't like. By examining the workings of the universe, and applying them to people, Jeremy came to the conclusion that free will was non existent.
"It's nothing but an illusion..."
The damning evidence was in the form of cause and effect. Like Pierre-Simon Laplace and many other great philosophers, Jeremy imagined a hyper intelligent entity that knew everything about one moment in time.
The position, direction, and momentum of every atom, every particle in the universe. Jeremy reluctantly reasoned that an entity with sufficient intelligence and this information could calculate every action in the universe both past and present. whether that be two meteors colliding or what ice cream you get in the year 2036.
There are no choices to be made, humans were no different from the rest of the universe. If you rewound reality everybody's actions would be the exact same every time. We are all effects of many causes.
"Our fate was decided from the beginning of the universe"
This was a difficult notion for him to accept, he felt like doing so would mean losing a bit of what makes us humans. Though he couldn't reason his way out of that conclusion, even if he broke the entity by adding a bit of randomness to the universe it wouldn't make free will existent. We cant chose our outcomes anymore then dice.
We are all victims of the chemical makeup of our brains, and the memories held within. You would do the same things as any great evil or great good being has done if you existed with the same experiences and brain chemistry they did.
"Does that mean criminals aren't responsible for their actions? Then what is justice?"
If criminals are victims of their own circumstances then justice must be little more than systematic revenge. Jeremy didn't think they should be let off free, but it did make him think about the prison system. He decided that the purposes of jail and prison, should be primarily to reform the criminal, and in worse cases separate from society.
As much as these thoughts troubled him, it bothered Jermey even more when he thought,
"Should I tell people there is no free will..."
Cool stuff. I wonder, If he told people that they didn't have free will, would they behave differently? And wouldn't that supposed change in behaviour be a direct result of their voluntary change?
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Not quite, it may cause their behavior to change, but it would be the direct result of having been exposed to the notion that free will is non existent. Everybody acts in a predictable manner if you could know all the variables.
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Thank you @alex-draw, for your entry! A fascinating direction, the question of free will...
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