Many people do what they feel like and don’t do what they hate

Have a good life but don’t let your feelings be your ultimate guide

This text could easily be turned into a book, giving sources and examples of every point made. Therefore, you might want to slow down reading this.

This is about ‘Jewish Free Will,’ because these ideas are rooted in Judaism, but Free Will works the same for Jews, other Monotheists, and Atheists.

What’s in a word? Free Will is not some special quality of ‘the will.’ Neither does it allude to freedom from (obstacles). ‘Free Will’ is an English idiom for personal freedom or autonomy. Philosophers also use ‘Volition.’  The famous German song sings, “The Thoughts are free,” believing that thinking is more fundamental than acting.

Classical Jewish Thought uses ‘Free Choice,’ which, however, is a special sort of choice. It’s a commanded choosing to pursue moral improvement—a revolutionary concept, as we will see. Ethics, not as an option, but as our Mission. Jewish freedom is a chance to act rather than a state of being. ‘Free Will is a verb.’ Is that why there are so many Jewish activists?

Obstructions of your choice generally may take away some of your power to do as you must or want but never your capacity to improve morally (slightly) at every moment among the options that you still have right then.

Introduction

Plants and lower animals do what their instincts tell them. They fly into flames to their death because their instinct says, ‘Fly to the light,’ from the time there were no bonfires yet, and light only meant life.

Higher animals can ‘choose’ between what feels good and what hurts. If it feels good, they must have it. If it hurts, they must flee from it.

People have all of that. G^d said to the inanimate world, plant world, and animal world, ‘Let us [together] make humans’ (Genesis 1:26).

Humans and Evil

Humans do use our instincts or feelings, but we can do more. We can brave discomfort and pain and do something because it is less hurtful in the long run in general, less Evil. Evil we then define as ‘overall unnecessary hurt.’

It’s logical to fight Evil, not just moral. We may replace Should by Better.

The choice doesn’t need to be between Good and Evil. It can be between bad and worse or good and better. For Free Will to exist, no Evil is needed.

When we choose to build our better self while braving distress, we deserve a thousand times more credit. That’s the only true justification for pure Evil.

A home trainer without a heavy flywheel doesn’t build muscles. A world without relative evil can’t build moral muscles.

Most people are good and decent but tend to project that on everyone. People who saw Evil from close up tend to lose their naivety and become bitter and from then on trust few. Calculated naivety seems to be the best.

Democracies go by some measure of equality but often don’t stop Evil.

Comprehensive Free Will Demystified

• Why won’t you eat this? Don’t you like it? I would love the taste, but it goes against my principles, commitments, or better judgement.
• Why suffer? You’ll feel great and love it. I believe it will feel great but only momentarily. I’m looking for long-term good feelings.
• But everyone loves this. I know. But I figured that, in the long run, this is worse for our joined futures so, from principle, I say no.

Free Will doesn’t mean being free to choose from equally appealing options but opting an ethically better one that might not feel so nice in the beginning. You spend time and effort to make the morally inferior option(s) look worse and/or the superior one(s) look better, to opt for the latter.

Free Will is the ability to free oneself enough from instincts and slavery to one’s feelings to live an overall more ethical and wiser life. That way one slowly frees oneself from character traits one refuses to have any longer.

Our feelings and characters reshape faster when we go against them. Instead of having feelings lead the way, we first act and then will feel like it.

You’ll build a better track record, a new nature and morality, and a new personality. You slowly free yourself from the bad sides you had.

It may take you different amounts of time and energy to make each choice out of the pupa, slowly turning into a butterfly. That effort is rewardable.

Ethical Liberation goes rung by rung. The higher rungs are further apart, but you’ll manage because climbing lower rungs built you moral muscles.

We can always make a little effort to improve a little. We’re always Free.

When we’re forced to do good, to get credit, we need to obey despite (!) being forced and make ourselves want it. We can also improve on what we are forced to do (e.g., smile). That way makes it hard to get credit, so G^d doesn’t force us, and neither should parents, teachers, friends, or society.

Shoulds are a crucial part of Free Will. Better still is to transform every Ought into an ‘I want to,’ internalize it, and do all things from the heart.

Free Will needs an ability to see beyond now to a future, but a mysterious consciousness is unneeded. Aware is a hyper-focused state after a trauma. The timeline of getting knowledge is: 1. You’re ignorant. 2. You just learned. 3. You’re shocked, alarmed. 4. Now you’re sharply aware of what was just knowledge. 5. It dulled, became subconscious, of low priority, suppressed.

Moses the Teacher

Moses was the first Free Will teacher. He didn’t say, ‘The choice is yours; do whatever you want.’ He commanded us to go for better (Deut. 30:19).

Yet he didn’t say, ‘Choose good,’ since everyone always strives for what’s best in their eyes. He said, ‘Choose life,’ meaning long-term, overall good.

By calling Good over Evil and telling us to go for Life, he gave us Free Will. Understanding is enabling. Go spread this notion! It’s not private property.

Judaism predicts the end of the ultimate evil, human suffering and death. All is well that ends well. We’re all invited to build together a perfect world.

Full credit to the Jewish Tradition for giving us this clarity, but also to the Rabbis who, confused by creeping assimilation to Greek Thought, still insisted that we have Free Will, even when they couldn’t fully explain it.

No Free Will

Free Will doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want. How is that good at all? It’s just a euphemism for doing what comes easily or ‘naturally.’

When we ‘feel free,’ it means that no moral choice or effort is involved. When we feel free, we cannot exercise Free Will and improve ourselves.

The opposite of choosing good is not being bad. No one prefers their bad. The opposite is to go with the flow, to not make the effort to go for better.

Animals have no Free Will. They can’t improve systematically. Animals use instant gratification or imminent danger, not long-term vision. They can be trained or conditioned with love, reward, and punishment to new instincts.

Disembodied Souls and computers (AI) have no bodily antagonisms, so they can’t do what they don’t feel like or be credible or answerable.

Young humans need to develop maturity to be able to challenge feelings. Their long dependence on us and good examples around will help them.

To ‘defend’ or produce free will, there are theories that use the human subconscious, QM Indeterminism, randomness, or chance—to no avail.

Causality

Our greatest Sages, of course, understood Free Will all along but hid this out of fear that it would lead simple people to lose their belief in Free Will (because of Causality being a part of it). Now most smart people have lost their belief in Free Will and because I’m not a Sage, I can publish it.

Attacks on Causality/Determinism have hardly helped our trust in Free Will.

Without reliable Causality we couldn’t choose. Still, we can improve when we strengthen our resolve to improve by reading, seeking out teachers, etc.

Causality makes the future predetermined (for G^d), including if we’d make an effort. But still, it takes effort, and so it’s commendable and rewardable.

If all is predetermined (by G^d or Determinism), what use is it to pray? Well, if our pleas are answered positively, we contributed because they were foreseen and from time immemorial and thus became part of history unfolding. If not granted, at least we did all we could and showed we care.

The same for exerting ourselves. If it helps, we contributed to perfecting Creation. If it doesn’t, at least we endeavored and deserve pay for trying. G^d has the final say in what happens; we get rewarded for trying, not only for results. And G^d created the Universe just ‘to be able’ to be generous.

Understanding Reward and Punishment

The idea of punishment in the Afterlife is mainly for deterrence. Penalties in this life are not to say you could have done better, but you should have.

An official anti-Evil morality of what people should (not) do encourages Free Will and helps against feeling down from all the Evil still around.

Suspects who don’t understand Evil, being too insane, stupid, young, or brain dead (criminally irresponsible), are not told, ‘You should not do this.’

People too drunk should not have sought intoxication. And if brainwashed from the cradle with ‘to murder Jews is good,’ we can now tell them not to.

A faulty, wicked morality declaring good what is Evil does a lot of damage to the actions and souls of simpletons and fanatics and their victims.

Those on death row who apologize, pay next of kin, and turn their lives around (or after suicide attempts are first revived) are still executed. Mad.

Nobel Prize

This is the only working Free Will model ever. All the others are brilliant and beautiful but dead wrong. It won’t get the Nobel Prize for mine. Philosophy professors need to nominate me, and they’re too confused.

They may also not nominate me because these ideas are based on religion or Orthodox Judaism, they have no respect for short and simple ideas and laypersons’ thinking, the optimism irks them, or they’re bad losers. Ha!

They won’t admit, ‘This is too far outside of my box/bubble.’ They’ll call it confusing for not following their jargon and preconceived notions. As a last resort not to consider it, they’ll call it ‘charming.’ Any layperson will get it.

There must be wise and humble philosophy profs specialized in Free Will who get it, but would they come out, sacrificing their reputations and jobs?

Academics may better like the above put in less bold or rude statements.

References

Moses, Mishnah Avot, Maimonides, and Rabbi E.E. Dessler on Free Will.