In reality, do we, human beings who are regarded as the highest life form, have free will ? Are we allowed to use the …show more content…
For instances, Harry Mitchell, the adjuster who is assigned to David Norris in The Adjustment Bureau, said that the adjustment team cannot read people’s mind or hear people’s thoughts. In fact, they can only precede the choice we make by analysing and interfering the decision-making process because we tend to weigh options. It can be inferred that one actually have the full authority over his own decision if he has such an intestinal fortitude that nothing can waver his tenacity just as David’s devout and unconditional love for Elise has overwritten their fate. Moreover, Harry also vacillates between his emotional attachment towards David and Elise and his duty towards the Chairman. We are told by the movie that the adjusters possess emotion and feelings but they are not programmed or allowed to experience them humanly. Yet, Harry seems to have the free will because the love between David and Elise engenders his empathy and that impels him to help David instead. Hence, even if one is trained to adhere to fixed sets of values or hardened by the reality, the choice always lies in one’s hand as David Norris said in The Adjustment Bureau, “All I have are the choices I …show more content…
The sensation is real, but the choice seems illusory. Laws of physics determine the future.”. From this context, we can deduce that the laws of physics indicate action and reaction pairs which in short means causation. Are making our own decision sufficient to be considered as acting on free will ? In my opinion, people pick the option based on the corresponding outcomes thus their decision-making process is heavily governed by the consequences of the action and also the emotional conflicts caused by the outcomes. First, there are agents who deliberately choose to act in a certain way but they are also simultaneously motivated to do so by a compulsive, controlling force. Hence, we can construe this type of free will is not entirely free because they are influenced by the repercussions. We can conclude that addiction, preference and different consequences axiomatically impinge on our free will because the Gita suggests that nature, agents, instruments, behaviour and fate decide the outcome of an undertaking. This is precisely highlighted in Chapter 8 of the Gita such as in verse 13 where Krishna said, “Arjuna, learn from me the five causes for the success of all actions as explained in philosophical analysis.” as well as in verse 14 where Krishna explained, saying,“They are the material basis, the agent, the different instruments, various kinds of behaviour, and finally fate the