Razzy Gaile Ferro

“How are we physically free but morally bound”

(St. Augustine)

To be physically free to do something of your own free will, it is essential that you could
act on your own accord, because if it’s something you despise doing it won’t be
considered as free will. If you cannot avoid acting in a particular way, then your action is
not free. While it is generally understood that human beings have the ability to think and
act freely as rational and moral agents, the common causal laws by which all human
activities and responses are governed are undisputable. It is this conflict that provides
the real problem of how we are free.

I would thus suggest that we are free in as much as we able to reject our own egos and
notions to give us the widest available potential options in our lives. If we can do this
then we are free to choose anything and can amend our lives accordingly to achieve
what we choose, which could then be anything our human capabilities allow. Feel free
to disagree.

We are free in so far as we experience choice. Some choices are extremely important
because we know that possibility A will lead to a very different outcome from that
produced by possibility B. These lead to lengthy and repeated pondering. The freedom
we experience when deliberating and considering possibilities must have been acquired
in a social context that has led to the emergence of language together with interests,
selves, agency, and second-order knowledge. Interests consist in basic needs and long-
term goals or concerns. The self has its origin in bodily recognition with the subsequent
establishment of the episodic memories that provide us with a personal identity. Self-
control arises because we are able to refrain from actions inconsistent with other, more-
highly-valued concerns. A sense of agency occurs in the course of the action that
follows deliberation, and this sense of agency has sometimes been misleadingly
attributed to an entity’s performing an ‘act of will’ – an idea which may have arisen as a
result of the mistaken belief that our thoughts are the exclusive cause of our behavior.

So, from this stance we may consider our selves physically free but morally bounded
because each one of us follow a set of norms which was inculcated upon us in growing
up which helps us decide which course of action to take. Some people will argue that it
is wrong to take a life but some would also say that its ok to take someone’s life if the
situation for it arises, this kind of situation makes us give the illusion of free will but what
we actually are doing is selecting the most viable course of action which will not impede
on our moral judgement and moral beliefs. A person’s free will is unanimously dictated
by its moral belief. Say for example: a young lad who has never learned to swim was
invited to take a dib in a beach, the lad would answer freely on his own accord that he
can’t be obliged to swim at the beach, the lad may think that he had the free will to
accept or decline the invitation but unanimously it was because of his moral judgement
which led him to declining the invitation. Even if it was me who was invited even, thou I
wanted to go the beach and take a dip but if I don’t know how to swim, I would
immediately decline that offer for because I know for myself that I don’t know to swim.
So, at the end of the day Free will might is just an illusion created by our brains,
scientists might have proved. Humans are convinced that they make conscious choices
as they live their lives. But instead, it may be that the brain just convinces itself that it
made a free choice from the available options after the decision is made. Nothing in this
world is morally free. As a movie line has said “everything has a price” which I do belief
that we may think we are free to do as we seem fit but in reality, we are following the
norm set by our moral standards and belief. As I was writing this essay I have also
changed and pondered some things over that is based on my moral belief.