Freewill: The Degree of Freedom Within

By Jesse Omoregie

Is Freewill really free, do people have power of real choice, and are there factors that influence The Will? This book addresses social and environmental factors, life experiences, genetic and biological explanations of the human choices and preferences.
Freewill emerged due to human quest for freedom in various forms, from real or imagined obstacles that interfered with their abilities to think freely, make decisions, choices and have preferences. In order to gain the perception that they have control of their fate and are responsible for their actions, the human Will must be free from such hindrances and interferences from known or unknown forces. The interference causes the Will to adjust, shift or even repressed due to social influences in the form of social facilitation, conformity and obedience to authorities, hereditary factors, childhood experiences that have been repressed, but are still driving the behaviour and preferences of the person, and brain activities which can dictate the mind state of an individual, how they make decisions, as well as the kind and quality of decisions they make.
It is necessary to understand what drives the behaviour of people, why they respond to certain stimuli in specific ways, and to understand the circumstances that affect decision making, which can help shape society in various forms, and most especially to help people maximize their potentials.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jul 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504987509

Book preview

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© 2015 Jesse Omoregie. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/28/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-8752-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-8751-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-8750-9 (e)

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Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgement

Introduction

Historical Background

Chapter One

The search for freedom

The age of irresponsibility

The struggle for responsibility

The age of responsibility

Chapter Two

Freedom and the Will

What is freedom?

Physical freedom

Mental freedom

Moral freedom

Chapter Three

Predestiny and Freewill

Morpheus vs. the Frenchman

Neo and the Oracle

Biblical account of predestiny

Chapter Four

Geo-culture, Religion, and Choice

Repressing the Will to accommodate that of society

Implications

Chapter Five

Social & Environmental Explanations

Will-Adjustment

Social facilitation and adjustment of the Will

Conformity and the Will-adjustment

Obedience against the will

Chapter Six

The Pyramid of Freewill and decision making

Pyramid of Freewill

The decision situation

The decision maker

The decision process

Chapter Seven

Psychoanalysis and Freewill

Freudian theory

Traits and types

Chapter Eight

Abnormalities and Freewill

Neuro-chemical activities and Freewill

The effects of Serotonin on behaviour

The effects of Dopamine on behaviour

Further analysis

Chapter Nine

Freewill and social learning theories

Further analysis

Chapter Ten

Heredity and Freewill

Chapter Eleven

Freewill and Intelligence

Support for heredity

Support for environment

Interaction

Further explanation

Chapter Twelve

Gender and the Will

Social assignment: against the Will

Gender Identity: A process of conditioning the Will

Case study – The case of Brenda

Gender and inequalities

Chapter Thirteen

Freewill as illusion

What is illusion?

Morpheus and Neo: what is real?

Chromosome and the Will

Response to stimulus-(Will Necessity)

Probabilities and choice

Conclusion

Benefit to society

Future project

Bibliography/References:

Dedication

This book is especially dedicated to my dad Christian Omoregie Iyamu, who retired as an educationalist in 1986 and passed away in June 2015. When I was growing up as a child, my dad helped me all the way through my journey and development in research and writing, my interests in philosophy, psychology, as well as mathematics. He had a big library at home where the genres of books ranged from philosophy to mathematics, spirituality, health and wellbeing, conspiracy theories, mythology, fiction, and lots more.

When my siblings and I were idle, my dad would give us labour tasks and he would say If you don’t want labour, then go and read. For us to avoid labouring we had to read books. At that point in time I thought my dad’s regime was too hard, but he always came back to explain to us that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. I grew up following that regime and soon I started to enjoy reading more and more.

At an early age of about eight or nine I began to make use of my father’s library where I picked up special interests in psychology, philosophy, poetry, Greek mythology and mathematics. My dad did not restrict my access to his library, and he was proud that I made use of it. I owe a special thanks to my dad, and may his soul rest in perfect peace.

Foreword

This book cuts across every dimension in exploring the level of freedom within the Will. The Author examines social, environmental, life experiences, psychological, and genetics factors, in the exploration of Freewill in line with the preferences and choices people make. This book is really engaging, challenging and mind blowing. This is a book one would just want to keep reading. Reading through the manuscript has opened my mind and I believe you will feel the same way too, after reading this great book.

It is amazing to see the author’s ideas turn into a finished book. I can still remember when he told me about writing a book on Freewill which will appeal to the regular man and woman, and we discussed about the concept and the vast amount of research needed.

I am a script and music writer. I work as a concept developer for Films and TV, and I am currently on the pathway to becoming a Counsellor. You can imagine why I so much love this book which can be very useful in our day to day lives and in a therapeutic environment.

Olasupo Balogun

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Professor Jerome Carson, for providing comments and editing for the manuscript of this book. Jerome Carson is a Professor of Psychology and the Chair of the Board of Studies for Higher Research Degrees, School of Education and Psychology, University of Bolton.

Special thanks to Brian Wilkinson, who assisted in the editing of the manuscript of this book. He has been a captain and manager of sporting teams at local and national level. He specializes at building businesses and propelling a rugby team to the heights of professional premiership competition.

Special thanks to my wife, Marian Omoregie for her continues support, understanding and love. She is the love of my life and the mother of my three lovely children.

Most of all, thanks to the Lord God Almighty who has given me the grace, wisdom, knowledge and understanding to put my thoughts into writing.

Introduction

Historical Background

Since the era of Socrates, Freewill, which is one of four most important philosophical problems of all time, has been a subject of scholarly debates and arguments. Yet there remains the presence of huge disagreement among scholars as to the degree of freedom within Freewill. The proposed questions are; is Freewill really free? Do people have complete moral freedom or power of real choice? Are there factors that influence Freewill? This book addresses social and environmental factors, life experiences, genetic and biological explanations of choices people make.

Freewill, which many Philosophers have linked to moral responsibilities, has been explored by ancient and modern Philosophers in three main dimensions: predetermination by fate or other dogmas of determinism, causality and necessity.

Many centuries ago long before the question of Freewill arose in ancient Greece, it was generally assumed that the fate of humans were unchangeably predetermined, and religion and other forms of divinity were used as an explanation for the fate of humans, in which people’s life events,