@ACB,
ACB;123376 wrote:What about hypnotism? If a hypnotised person is caused to perform a bizarre or uncharacteristic act without experiencing any pressure of being forced to do it, must we say he did it of his own free will?
Can we never be compelled without realising it?
Let me rephrase.
You're absolutely right that we can be compelled to do things and not know it.
But we must make sure we do not overstate this. We must not, for instance, assume that all chemical processes occuring in our brain, or anywhere else in our body, are compelled. This is why I want to clarify. If we say an involuntary action, like a heart beating, is compulsion, it seems to me it's different than the being compelled we're speaking of here*. The being compelled I imagined we were speaking of here, must be
within the confines of something we would say X person would do, or is capable of doing. For instance, we wouldn't say, "Jim is beating his heart", would we? His heart beating is not something we would consider as
his doing. We would instead say, "
His heart is beating", as if the heart were an independent entity. Here we begin to seperate Jim from his bodily function. Once we draw this seperation, I feel, we should stop applying compulsion and free will. It is no longer a consciousness we're speaking of; free will and compulsion are no longer terms which apply.
Now, how this relates:
It's been explored many times within this thread: Well, what if our actions boil down to biological/chemical processes, do we really then have free choice?
I believe this question confuses matters.
I think people are attempting to mix things which are considered capable of being done and experienced, with things which are not considered capable of being done or experienced. I think that each should be evaluated differently (although not always seperately), and the latter should not have the terms (or any variation of) 'compelled' or 'free' applied. We must evaluate what humans are capable of doing as being compelled or freely done
only. When we begin to doubt that we can freely choose or be compelled simply because there are biological/chemical causes, we are confusing matters. In other words, the compulsion and free will come after the fact, and are usuaully experiential matters (except those times where we do not know we're being compelled - clarified above). They are part of an epiphenomenon related to
consciousness. In the same way that we would say that something makes us happy, despite there being being chemical causes for why we are happy. But our being happy is still us being happy, no matter the cause. We must distinguish between the experience of us being happy and the causes which biologically led to our happiness. Or, at least I think we ought to. And actually, for a more stretched analogy, I think it's like questioning if we're conscious at all, simply because there are millions of neurological processes which are the cause of our consciousness. We don't question our consciousness or any other experience simply because there are causes, do we? So why free will?
And once again, just as a keepsake:
Not all causes compel.
* I understand it's hard to know where to draw the line, though. Because, as noted, some involuntary actions we
should apply "compelled" to. It's really tough to say sometimes.
Quote:
How do we distinguish between (internal) compulsion and non-compulsion? Does it depend (as I suggested earlier) on whether the brain processes involved are normal or abnormal? If so, which specific type(s) of abnormality negate freedom, and which do not? Is compulsion an all-or-nothing matter, or are there degrees of compulsion (e.g. in the case of a mild addiction)? And so on. I think more detail is needed to resolve this issue.
I think there has to be different levels of compulsion, as the reasons someone is compelled are not always equal. I am compelled to obey the law, for instance, but the force of compulsion may not be as great as perhaps a very strong addiction to a hard drug. I'd say I may be more compelled to do the hard drug than I would be compelled to obey the law in some cases (depends on the law I'm breaking and punishment).