The issue of free will has occupied my thought for quite some time, and the answer seems to shrouded in a number of different layers of concepts and issues, which makes it an ardous task. Are humans free? Or are we a part of a grand design, and our free will is an illusion? I do not suppose that i have found the ultimate answer to this question, so i'll just talk a little about it, examining the matter from different angles.
There are, i think, three major theories of determinism: Religious determinism, Physical determinism, and Psychological determinism.

Religious determinism believes in an omnipotent, omniscient God, who knows everything that has happened in the past, or will happen in the future. The immediate question raised is that if God knows everything is going to happen, how can we have a say of our own in deciding it. Well, to my mind, it is not a valid objection because "knowing" is not the same as "deciding". God may know that i'll have a sandwich for breakfast, but that doesn't mean he forced me to take it. But there can be other versions of religious determinism in which God does decide the whole future, as is revealed in the concept of fate. However, this clearly contradicts the idea of accountability associated with most religious. We can only be accountable for our actions if we are free. Obviously, the religious determinism rests on the idea of God, and if it is denied, it collapses.

Physical determinism maintains that all things including humans obey the laws of physics, and therefore there is no free will. The difficulty with this idea is the assumption that "all things" obey laws of physics. As far as i know, physics is not capable of explaining the origin of consciousness in humans, and therefore believing that all biology is reducable to physics is, at present, unjustified.

Psychological determinism states that all human actions have a motive behind them. We eat because we feel hunger, we work to get food, we sleep to rest, and we love because it is a biological drive. Behaviouristic psychology has emerged as one of the most important psychological theories. Although it seems reasonable, but when applied to concrete situations in which humans make decisions, i don't find this theory much convincing. However, the fact that we can to some extent predict human behaviour is a great support to this idea.

Another problem associated with the issue is of defining free will. The most common definition is that when several courses are open to us, when can choose any one of them. The problem is that computers can also "choose" from a number of possibilites. Does that mean they are free as well? In fact, many believe that human mind too acts like an "artificial intelligence", making decisions on the basis of previous ideas and contents of mind.

I don't know, but determinism tends to make life spooky for me. It completely denies any distinction of good and evil, because they are associated with free will. Think about it.

Human life appears to be a collage of contradictions. At times, it seems so petty and so insignificant, like a bug roaming in a vast tropical jungle. And at others, it is almost god-like, as if the universe was made just to serve our purpose. Sometimes, fate conspires in such arcane manners to help that we are astounded, and sometimes we seem to be trapped in a whirlpool of problems, with the waves piling up exponentially. Life teems with coincidences, coincidences that are organized in such a pattern that they appear to be the work of a higher consciousness. A person's whole life can change just because of one coincidence; one moment can determine the rest of your future. And every so often it occurs as if our very life was designed for that moment; our whole journey was meant for that instant. The sensation is almost mystical, inspiring, and in someway, also a little fear-producing; because if our very life is for that point of time, that negligible tick of clock will determine our failure or success, happiness or grief. These thoughts may appear the leisure-outputs of a poet, but i don't why, they are so much connected with my mind that rejecting them would be akin to tearing a part of my own identity.

Ah, winter is slowly creeping into the weather of Lahore, and it is getting chillier and chillier as the days go by. Today, the sun was not even visible, and even at the noon the surrounding present a picture of twilight. As if you are caught up in surreal world, with everything in shades of gray. It tends to make things gloomy. And the cold grips your body like a giant's fist, tightening its stranglehold every minute. I can feel heat being sucked out of my feet, which leaves them aching and very uncomfortable. My hands burn with cold and feel like made up of stone, and the mind struggles to maintain its conciousness. Its like being in a grave. I hate winters!

'Iris' by Go Goo Dolls is one of my most favourite songs, and what i really like about it is the lyrics. So beautiful, so thought-provoking and so elegant, i can't help loving them. :) So, here are the lyrics of the song. Read them and think about them, and you might discover a new aspect of your life.

Iris - Go Goo Dolls

And I'd give up forever to touch you
'Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now


And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
'Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight


And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am


And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive


And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am


And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am


And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

----
Magnificent, aren't they? Ah, reading them stirs up a vortex of feelings and emotions in me. GoGoo Dolls, thank you for singing this song.

What should be the state policy regarding suicide? Obviously, they can't set up a punishment for this because the victim is supposed to be dead if the action is successful. [Reminds me of a scene in the cartoon movie 'Incredibles' in which the hero saves a man from suicide, but the man is not grateful and brings up a law case against him. The hero protests "I saved your life!". The man retorts, "You didn't save my life, you ruined my death!"] So, i guess the best thing to be done by the state is to leave the issue of suicide untouched. If i a man wishes to die, then it is his own personal matter. Why should the state interfere? [And how can the state interfere?]

Euthanasia is also a kind of suicide but an important difference is that here a doctor is an accomplice to the act. But to my mind, this involvement doesn't make much difference. If a man is suffering from an uncureable disease and is experience excruciating pain, why should he suffer in vain? I think the decision that he wishes to live or not is the person's own decision. The state should not not decide for his life. If that man decides to die, and the doctor agrees to that, i don't see any reason why the state should stop them.

It is vital to note that i am not discussing whether Euthanasia is right or wrong, but whether the state should be involved in this or not. Is mercy killing right or wrong is the question that should be answered by the patient and the doctor, not the state. There is a lot of ethical and religious controversy involved with this question, but if we simply give the patient's welfare and comfort the top priority over other things [such as God's will, or Categorical Imperative etc] then it is obvious that if a man is going to die and there is no doubt about that, what reason there is to endure useless pain?

I am new to the world of blogs. I had been hearing about the success of blogs for quite some time but never thought about starting one of my own until now. I don't how the experience would turn out but i hope it is pleasant. Wish me good luck. :)

Ah, so what should i write about today. Hmmm... well, i have been thinking a lot about the topic of love these days, so i'll write a few lines about that. I think there are a so many facets and elements related to love that trying to define it would be a futile effort. There is also the difficulty that every person has his own concept and idea of love, or as some psychologists say, 'stories' of love. The success of relationship between two persons doesn't depend on how much the two love each other, but whether their 'stories' of love are compatible or not. A husband believes that in love one should be open to each other about the other's faults, and his wife believes that in love one should ignore and not mention each other's mistakes. It is quite obvious that althought they would both deeply love each other, their relationship would deteriorate because what one considers an act of love is considered an act of 'un-love' by the other, and vice versa. One wonders how many relationships would have fallen apart because the lovers didn't realise that their stories of love were different.

Whatever the nature of love maybe, it is certain that it is one of the most important and unique experiences of life. A successful love relationship can make life immensily beautiful for you and a love-fiasco can render a person's life unbearably pessimistic. How many colours love adds to one's life can only be understood by a person who has been in love. Your heart falls in love, and you'll never perceive a sun set or a star-spangled sky the same way again; as if a previously black-and-white photo has suddenly been granted gay colours. Psychology says that a pain accompanied with a pleasure can become associated with it. Perhaps this is true in love as well. A lover seems to enjoy even the pain love causes.

This reminds me of joke i once read in a magazine. It went like this: A person asks his lover-cum-philosopher, "What do you enjoy more? Waiting for me or meeting me?" She replied, "Waiting for you." He said," Then you can enjoy for the rest of your life, because i am marrying someone else!"
Despite it being a joke, there is a certain amount of truth in it. But i think that waiting in love can be a source of pleasure only if the waiting time is finite [or is expected to be finite.] When it is supposed to be infinite, as in the joke, the pleasure in it evaporates.

John Keats wrote: " Do not all charms fly, at the mere touch of cold philosophy?" He may be write, but the charms of love are so die-hard and persistant that the cold philosophy itself becomes 'warm' by contact with it. There is often a close relationship between love and philosophy. Many people become philosophers because of falling [and failing!] in love. I would like to write a book on philosophy of love someday. I don't know if this dream would ever come true, but if it does, i'd like to start it with the lines: "It is in love that philosophy is born, it is love that nourishes it and it is love as an ideal that philosophy should seek."

Nietzsche said, "Without music, life would be a mistake." Perhaps it is more true in case of love.

I found an interesting quote by Neil Gaiman, and i'd like to share it with you: "Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."

The topic is too vast to be finished up in one post. I'll write some more on it in some next posts as well. I'll sign off this one with these amusing words, enjoy! "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love." [Albert Einstein] :)