FREE WILL AND THE INSANE

 
Free will is the notion that what we do comes from us and is not down to some programming or factor that makes us choose what we choose. It is the view that when we choose we really choose and it is not some kind of illusion. Some believers in free will hold that not all of us have complete free will though some do. Some believe that all of us have enough free will to be reasonably accountable even if not fully accountable for what we do.
 
Belief in free will is not worth it if it demands that we treat insane people as guilty of the evil they may do.
 
Let us assume free will is a reality. The insane person may have hallucinations but that does not mean that what he or she does in terms of evil is not done of their own free will. They still have intact power to choose. Intention and insanity are two separate things.

If we regard insane people as not guilty or responsible for the evil or harm they do then what about everybody else? Insane people think they are sane. You cannot fully know then if you are really responsible for the evil you do.

If you believe in free will, then you have to treat sane and insane alike. This stance is outrageous and evil. Belief in free will should lead us to do grave injustice to the insane. If we don’t do it, then we are still cuddling up to a principle that says we should and demands that we do it.
 
If you think you have free will, you will end up feeling that you own the mental illness you have and that you own the shame. It makes your intuition tell you that if you were the person next door you would not be so ill. Free will is the reason there is a stigma against those who suffer from mental illnesses and who are psychotic. No such stigma exists for any other kind of illness.
 
Some argue that if you are a really good person and suffer brain damage and turn into a serial killer that you are not responsible. They say you are doing what you would not do if your brain were okay so you are not accountable. But others contest that. They say, "The question is what is a normal brain when we are are all so different from everybody else. And what if you are born with genes that make you a savage? Being different or damaged does not mean you are no longer you when you do what you do."  What if your brain has a way of making you stay you even when damaged at least in a certain way?

 

Christian philosopher Plantinga argues that free will is inherently good. The insane person believes just that.  They have a strong sense of free will and may think that they control the stars.

 

What if we tell him that most of us only love it up to a point? We detest how the insane are considered less free than us and thus in need of keeping at a distance.  We detest the amount of error and suffering that this free will has brought and what about the even would be worse evil than it asked for but which fortunately never took place?  Hitler for example willed the total savage destruction of the Jews.  The evil and suffering is inherently evil to nearly everybody. What about that? Free will as the Christian God gives is given at a massive cost – too massive. God himself never tells you why your free will is so important. He should.  But he cannot.

 

Free will is a function for deciding what you will do. It is about deciding first. It is not about morality first. Giving it a religious role is vile for it suggests, “If you do x then you have done wrong in the eyes of God and that is what matters.” God based forgiving and seeking his pardon is inherently degrading. It involves denial of what free will is all about.  Yet a person with such an attitude to morality is considered mentally ill but not when they frame it in mainstream philosophical terms.  Luckily nobody considers denying free will to merit the attention of the psychiatrist.  Psychiatry has often treated people as if they are machines and not true agents of what they do.

 

It is an insane boast to think that your free will is so precious that you should have it even if you would kill everybody on earth with it.  You are really saying that you are so special that your autonomy is worth that.  Even worse, you are not truly autonomous [eg you can't drink a litre of gin daily and stay healthy] but have the autonomy to do that!  You are saying the little good you do is worth the risk of you doing unbelievable evil instead.

 

Free will is not a gift from God and it is degrading to tell you that a non-gift is a gift and plus the gift is degrading in other ways too.
 
BOOKS CONSULTED
 
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PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY, Voltaire, Translated by Theodore Besterman, Penguin, London, 1972
RELIGION IS REASONABLE, Thomas Corbishley SJ, Burns & Oates, London, 1960
THE CASE AGAINST GOD, Gerald Priestland, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, London, 1984
THE LIFE OF ALL LIVING, Fulton J Sheen, Image Books, New York, 1979
THE PUZZLE OF GOD, Peter Vardy, Collins, London, 1990
THE REALITY OF GOD AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL, Brian Davies, Continuum, London-New York, 2006
THE TEACHING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Ed. Canon George D Smith, Ph.D. Burns and Oates and Washbourne, London, 1952
THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY, WH Turton, Wells Gardner, Darton & Co Ltd, London, 1905
UNBLIND FAITH, Michael J Langford, SCM, London, 1982
WHY DOES GOD? Domenico Grasso SJ, St Paul's, Bucks, 1970

BIBLE QUOTATIONS FROM:
The Amplified Bible