Sooner or later, any of us ponders the disturbing question to what extent are our lives and our future predetermined? Do fate and fortune exist? Should the talk of our destiny be taken seriously? Intuitively, we feel that we are driven by something, sometimes against our own will, but … So I want to think that everything is determined only by our own choice.
Between God and Satan
According to the biblical legend, Adam and Eve, under the influence of Satan, exchanged life in the Garden of Eden for the opportunity to “know what is good and evil,” making a conscious choice. And although later they grieved for the lost bliss, there is not a single legend that they tried to refuse the acquisition.
The free will of man has been the subject of many theological discussions. Perhaps the most famous of these took place between the founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, and the Dutch humanist scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam. Erasmus believed that a person of his own free will is able to choose virtues, to renounce sins and find salvation.
Luther believed that human nature was perverted by the fall of Adam and Eve, therefore only God can tell a person how to act: “Human will is somewhere in the middle, between God and Satan, like a beast of burden. If the Lord takes possession of a man, he will willingly go where the Lord wills … If Satan owns him, he will willingly go where Satan wills."
As usual, the opponents remained unconvinced, and everyone was sure that it was he who had out-argued the opponent. However, modern humanistic philosophy leans towards the point of view of Erasmus of Rotterdam. And what about science? Did she say her weighty word?
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I'm asking you to burp
As you know, the main merit of Sigmund Freud is that he discovered in people the abyss of hidden sexuality and showed that sex and thoughts about sex play a much greater role in human life than narrow-minded moralists were ready to admit.
This is certainly true. But no less merit of the founder of psychoanalysis lies in the discovery that the human mind does not at all reign supreme in his brain. There is also the unconscious - a huge ocean of forbidden feelings and desires, which our notions of decency do not release into the light, but which use any loophole in our consciousness to break out.
In his lectures "Introduction to Psychoanalysis" Sigmund Freud gives the following examples: a certain orator who was making a toast at his boss's birthday, instead of "I ask you to raise your glasses" (in German anstossen) suddenly said by mistake: "I ask you to burp" (in German aufstossen) - thereby expressing his true attitude towards the hero of the day. Another, giving a speech at the funeral, instead of "I am not able to list all the merits of the deceased," said: "I am not inclined …" Of course, he was far from the idea of settling scores at a fresh grave, but his subconscious mind reminded him of old grievances.
Freud gives quite a lot of such examples in his lectures, and you yourself can easily find them if you listen, for example, to the speeches of modern politicians. As a rule, sooner or later they “let it out” and accidentally give out what really interests them. Such a "Freudian hunt" can be very interesting and rewarding.
One of the modern psychoanalysts Erich Bern, in his book "Games People Play", forced the subconscious, consciousness and superconsciousness (ideas about good and evil, received from parents or learned from the "cultural context") to conduct rather heated debates inside a person, in which consciousness is struggling to reconcile the disputants, but it does not always come out the winner.
But psychoanalysts at least leave us the opportunity to come to terms with our unconscious impulses and dogmatic demands of morality, which tends to crucify anyone who could not or did not want to play by the rules. Geneticists are more severe and ruthless.
It's my aunt's fault
Remember the king in the play "An Ordinary Miracle" by Yevgeny Schwartz? He told about himself: “I am a good-natured person, clever, I love music, fishing, cats. And suddenly I’ll do something that makes me cry … I inherited all the vile family traits along with the family jewels. Can you imagine the pleasure? If you do something nasty, everyone is grumbling, and no one wants to understand that it's my aunt's fault."
The natural mechanism that gives a child the same eye or hair color as his ancestors has long been identified. Our DNA contains “recipes” for all proteins in our body, including pigments that color our hair and eyes. Three laws discovered by the monk Gregor Mendel determine which of a pair of genes, paternal or maternal, will "play" in a child.
Parents, in turn, received pairs of genes and, therefore, pairs of traits from their parents, and this chain goes back centuries. But … is the weakness or strength of the hacker inherited, meanness or valor in the same way as the color of the eyes?
This is not easy to figure out. You cannot set up an experiment, you cannot cross people like flies in order to get offspring with this or that genetic set. The so-called "twin method" comes to the rescue: identical twins, born from one fertilized egg, which later split into two embryos, have the same set of genes and are like "natural clones" of each other. Fraternal twins, grown from two fertilized eggs, are genetically close to each other, like regular brothers and sisters, but by no means identical.
By comparing them, we can hope to identify the differences between hereditary traits and environmental influences.
In 2005, scientists decided to compare the propensity for religion in 169 pairs of fraternal and 104 pairs of identical twins. The results were mixed. In childhood, almost all subjects adhered to the same views on religion (and these were the views of their parents, which is quite logical and expected). Later, fraternal twins increasingly disagreed. But identical ones continued to give similar answers, as if faith was written in their identical genomes!
But is this conclusion correct? After all, identical twins are not blind: their native resemblance, which parents love to emphasize, does not escape them. They prefer to think of themselves as a whole and hold similar views. That is, perhaps we are again faced with the influence of the environment, and not at all a genetic predisposition.
And the one that sits in me is pretty tired of me
Unlike psychoanalysts and geneticists, who study the result without delving into the process, neurophysiologists have learned to document the very moment of making a decision.
In 1983, the American scientist Benjamin Libet performed a simple experiment that produced startling results. Libet suggested that the subjects raise their finger when they want to do it, and inform about the desire that has arisen by pressing the bell button. At the same time, he recorded their encephalograms.
It turned out that in the brains of the subjects, a specific excitement, which preceded the raising of the finger, arose 500 milliseconds before the bell rang. That is, the person did not yet realize that he wanted to call, but his brain already knew and was preparing for this. It would seem, what kind of free will can we talk about? It turns out that we are all slaves of our brain and we dance to its tune!
Or is it again the problem of interpretation? After all, to think: "Perhaps I want to raise my finger, and Dr. Libet asked me to warn if I want to do this," also takes a certain time. Maybe our brain is not a dictator, but just a smart servant who understands everything perfectly?
However, is the question of what happens first: the emergence of desire or the realization of it? After all, we know very well that people are capable of doing terrible things quite consciously - simply because they believe it is right or follow the example of others. It is much more productive to think not about what is behind our choices, but about how to make the most of natural self-control and live our own lives without our children cursing us.
Elena PERVUSHINA
Different fates
A hero's fate
In the Hellenic world, they feared only one fate: many goddesses and deities embodied it. Nemesis bore inevitable retribution; soulless necessity - to Ananke; blind chance - Tyche - was waiting around every corner, and severe and cold necessity - Adrasteya - grew up on the path of life suddenly and inevitably.
It was not without reason that the Olympians were afraid of fate. “Dark and insane, completely unknown, but at the same time defining every thing” - this is how the philosopher Losev spoke about the concept of fate in the Hellenic world. But even the terrible Hellenic fate gives the right to choose. Achilles knew that participation in the Trojan War would bring him death. And killing Hector would be the beginning of his own end.
And the alternative was: it was possible to live a long, pleasant and inglorious life … And Achilles goes to the battlefield and defeats Hector, astonishing the gods with his courage and rage … And then he dies. May the fate of the hero come true. It is scary not to die in battle, but to die in blind decrepitude under the wreckage of a rotted ship, like Jason.
The fate of the Bedouin
Researchers of Bedouin philosophy drew attention to the amazing word "sabr", which had two opposite meanings at the same time. This is patience, perseverance, endurance. Incredible obedience. And at the same time “sabr” is courage, courage, audacity. Incredible courage.
So this strange notion related to fate can be translated as "courageous patience" or "patient courage." To live wisely and correctly, you need to have a sabr. Where you need to - submit to fate. Where you need to - to engage in a fierce battle with circumstances. Fate is incomprehensible, and there is nothing to puzzle over trying to understand its essence.
Eat, drink, spend time with the gurias, buy horses and at home - while fate gives you such an opportunity. And the day will come - calmly accept the destined. And therefore, the Bedouins had neither neuroses nor depression - they simply took life and fate for granted. And they acted according to the circumstances.
The fate of the king
There is nothing terrible in fate, the Scandinavians believed. She can even show favor and mercy to a person, but only to the king. To the leader. To the leader. Fate simply pays no attention to the rest. Indeed, it is the kings who participate in the turning-point and critical battles, and they meet with fate. And she gives them good luck and happiness - for their courage. And even a man of a simple kind can get his piece of happiness, his share and fate - for this he must join the king.
To go with him, to fight with him and for him, to be faithful and faithful - and then you can get a little favor from fate. So blessed is the one who joined the xyllic leader and shared his fate, having received his own part, the fate. Now such a person also has a relationship with fate; now he is a personality worthy of her attention!
What to do?
Modern psychology is increasingly repeating what the priests of Mesopotamia already wrote on clay tablets 8 thousand years ago: in order to live in peace with fate, you should correspond to your essence as much as possible. Have a talent, develop it and follow your talents. If you have courage and strength, fight. Love - love. Know - cognize.
And the day of meeting with fate will come - to meet it with dignity, as befits an ancient Greek hero, Bedouin and king. For no one knows what will happen after death. But secret knowledge and vague guesses have been preserved, supported by modern research, that the "pattern of fate" (Schopenhauer) does not end with this life. This is just a part. And we enter the unknown with the experience, victories and knowledge that we have acquired in this life.
Anna KIRYANOVA, psychologist-philosopher