Applications of Free Will

A keen study of free will would suggest to you that it does not really matter whether you have it or not. What would matter most is that as long as you have some degree of freedom in choosing and doing things in one way or the other, you would prefer to pursue your goals. If you are an athletic type, you may want to enroll in a gymnasium and develop a great body. You may also train to become a kick-boxer. And as soon as you have learnt something about the art, you may find your heartiest adversary and you may apply a perfect flying kick right on one of his jaws. This, however, depends on how you define virility. Even if you do not care much about the masculinity of your approach, or rather if you are a person of a nonviolent type, even then you may want to do something with your newly learnt martial arts skills and your toned body. You might at least go to a beach, take your shirt off and stand in the knee-deep water. All of a sudden you stretch and raise your right leg above your head,  so quickly so as to create a great splash in the water. You get yourself photographed. Congratulations! You are in the news now!! You are Jean Claude Van Damme!!!

The above narrative was one of the many examples of how a person can hone and use one’s mental and physical faculties. It was supposed to be funny! The debate that whether humans have free will or not is a totally different one. In as much as the subject may sound trivial or insignificant from a practical point of view, its study has rather serious applications in various scientific and academic disciplines that concern human development and well-being in one way or the other. These are social science, psychology, human behavior, neuroscience, law, politics, philosophy, war and religion, to name but a few.

For the purpose of brevity it may be worthwhile to look at the importance of this subject from the vantage point of its relevance in studying neuroscience. I believe that neuroscience is one such area which has started to dominate many other spheres of life in today’s interdisciplinary world. It attempts to study things as simple as emotional well being of humans to issues as complex as motivations behind peoples actions and their repercussions on social order and legislation.

Consider psychology and mental health, for instance. Why do people choose to be angry when they can smile? Why do people choose to steal things from others while they could simply have helped an old person cross the street?

A very interesting reason for studying free will is to understand human consciousness. Analysis of human consciousness is a very hot topic these days. On a coarse level it tries to understand the human consciousness and along with that whether or not it survives bodily death or not. In either case, that is, whether or not human consciousness survives bodily death, it becomes quite interesting and important to understand as to how to live this earthly life happily and peacefully? What forms a healthy coexistence? What is the role of religion in our lives? This and many other interrelated questions urge us to study the nature of free will. May Allah help us all to live and coexist peacefully.