They say, Nature is lawful, and humans are part of this nature, so humans are lawful as well. This gives rise to one of the most famous controversies in present day world. "Everything is Determined, and their is NO free will". But, equally opposed by the people, who believe in their own Free will, and that, their actions create the consequences which shapes up the world. Baruch Spinoza, a famous philosopher said, and I quote:
"In the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has been determined by another cause, and this last one by another cause, and so o to infinity."It is interesting, I myself, a follower of the notion, that free will exists, it is just, nature or God ( for the believers like me ) have the prediction element, that they know, what our next step will be, but still, we are free to choose. Defying Destiny, a literary catchphrase used in stories now a days, but once, was a genuine true term. Firstly my own belief sounds like a paradox or false hope, but believe me, it is not, but, let's not discuss my notion, the interesting thing i wanted to state was, Spinoza openly denied the concept of free will, yet, still, it actually made sense. In short, it can be seen that, even in denial lies the answers of true freedom of will. Before I explain the reason, let us hear what Spinoza san had to say elsewhere.
Spinoza said that it is human ignorance of the cause of events that makes us believe that we possess free will. To quote:
"Men think themselves free inasmuch as they are conscious of their volition and desires, and never even dream, in their ignorance, of the causes which have disposed them so to wish and desire."Now, this clearly shows us, that humans, don't have free will, but it also shows us, that we are able to have it, its not impossible. Humans are so fret up with choosing sides, that they lack to see the deeper meanings, if I were to give a famous coin example, one would focus too much on heads, and the other would focus too much on tails, and in time there would appear idiots that would decide to remain neutral, look at both sides, but in their awe to see both, they fail to capture the beauty of any, and stay above on a superficial level. If life is a prism, than every possibility for the light to come out, portrays a different possibility for the whole universe to function differently.
In common, Modern gaming language, if I interpret this Spinoza guy's message, he's saying, Humans are playing an open world GTA type game, with a first person view. You see only as much as your camera angle allows you to see, you might feel free, but do you know that you are not being controlled ? After all, in this notion of free, you can not even see your self. Keeping all this in mind, if we were to agree that we live unfree in a free world, what then is 'freedom' ?
Freedom consists in knowing that everything that is must necessarily be and everything that happens must necessarily happen. Everything results from Nature, and to understand nature results in the highest pleasure as one is part of it's eternal. People often view God's or Nature's role as that of a manipulator, and in an attempt to justify that their life has more meaning, they run from these self created puppeteers. One has to accept, that a human entity, this life, and universe, and flow of nature, fate, God's will, they are all but directing to one single notion. "Freedom." We are already free, and denial of that freedom is in short the way to enslave us to a predestined ordinary. It will happen, what has to happen. The freedom within it is to live with the knowledge of the cause of things. That is, to live with the idea of what causes our behavior and thoughts.
"The free man is one conscious of the necessities that compels him."A murderer is no more responsible for his behavior than is a river that floods a village. If the cause of both were understood. However, the aversive events could be controlled or prevented. That is, if we know, why we are about to do what we are to do, or why we act out anything in the first place, we can be free to choose if such should be done in the first place.
Letting lose of oneself is not freedom, its deviation from the natural, freedom, than is to know, the What's and Why's of ones own self and to take them into account and action.