"In the Land of the Blind the One Eyed Man is the King"
Throughout my life, I came across the same question several times: What if....? At one point I went all the way back to my very existence. Was it my parents free will to conceive me or it was a chain of necessary events which led to my mother's pregnancy. What if my father was more careful? What if my mother's desire to have another child was not strong enough? How my and my family's life would've turned out if I was born a boy? How my personality would be if I grew up in a different family? How much control we have over our lives?
We have recently watched Minority Report in class, which made me think about those questions again. And the two words, comes right away to one's mind are: free will and determinism. These words bring major debates, arguments among philosophers. But to understand what are the arguments about, first we have to know the meaning of these words.
Determinism - as well the related pre-determinism - is a philosophical idea that every event, including every human decision and action is the inevitable and necessary consequence of a chain of prior occurrences - such as destiny, natural and biological laws - stretching back to the origin of the universe. That means determinism implies just one possible future. That is the major topic of the movie. In the near future officials create a new justice system, called "Precrime". With the help of certain individuals - called the "precogs" - who foresee the future, and with their own "Precrime Police" they prevent future murders, by predicting who will commit certain crimes. They believe that, the chain of events that leads to someone's decision to commit a crime is inevitable. So they find the person, they arrest him, before he reaches his destiny. And here comes the argument. If the future is pre-determind, that means we don't have free will, then how we can be judged by, how we are responsible for something we can not control?
Free will means: the ability to make choices. Michael Huemer said in his writing, Free will and Determinism in the world of Minority Report: "Having free will is thought to require two things: alternate possibilities and self-control." A human being is free only if more than one future is possible for him, he can choose between his possible actions, and he controls them. However the pre-cogs predicted that John Anderton would commit the crime, he altered his own future by choosing not to do it. Or see Lamar at the end of the movie. Anderton gives him two alternatives to choose from, but he decides to pick another one. First he really wants to kill John, but then he controls his anger because he realizes none of the choices would make a difference, so he decides to kill himself instead.
There is a sentence in the movie, that comes up several times. "Can you see?" When Danny who leads the internal investigation is asking questions about the "precogs", John says: "There is nothing wrong with the system. The system is perfect." Dany agrees with him, but he adds: The flaw is the human." Meaning that humans have free will, and however we can't stop the law of nature or the phisics from happening, we can alternate it, we can think, we can choose between right and wrong. That's our power against determinism. That is what Agatha, one of the "precogs" is trying to tell John towards the end of the movie that, he still has a choice but he has to see it, recognize it.
There are other alternatives to determinism. Among philosophers the most popular view is that freedom and determinism are very much comparable. I think, the woman who invented "Precrime" is a perfect example of those people who believe in this, the so called soft determinism. When Anderton goes to visit her, she expresses her believes in her system. But she gives room for other possibilities. However every "almost" murder was bound to happen, she states that the "precogs" could've made mistakes time to time, and events could have happened differently. The people who were being put away, could have made different decisions, but she didn't mind sacrificing some of them for the greater good. Acknowledging the failure of the part of the system would've meant they had to shut down the whole system. And she could not allow that, because she believed that, the system saved hundreds of lives. She's also talking about survival, everyone's basic instinct. She encourages John to do the almost impossible, to win against the system. She wants him to choose to stay alive.
Morality also plays a big rule in the movie and it connected to free will. When John realizes there are maybe some innocent people, whom he put away, it hits him hard. He wants to know, what really happened because he is a good man. His conscientiousness can't bare the thought of injustice. He - again - choose to see. Practicing your free will often trigger a chain of event which are inevitable and leading you towards your future. The road to your future can be dangerous and unknown but you can't stop, because time is not in our side. The inventor of "Precrime" says: "Sometimes to be able to see the light, you have to risk the dark." John risked everything to be able to see. And we, human beings should do the same.
We are sleeping for a long time, but it's time to wake up and see what is going on around us, with us! We should practice our rights to choose, to have alternatives. We should not let things just happen to us, determined by external causes. Huemer says in his text: "The only way we can control our actions and decisions is by having them be caused by our internal thoughts and motivations." In the movie, minority reports eventually prove that, free will, and alternative possibilities are exist. And I believe in that too. Our future is somewhat pre-determind, but with practicing our free will we, humans can have control over our lives. We made lots of mistakes in our history, because we choose not to see, but we can change that. We can open our eyes and see. We can use that fantastic ability - free will - to survive and have a better, happier, even safer life in the future.
There is a sentence in the movie, that comes up several times. "Can you see?" When Danny who leads the internal investigation is asking questions about the "precogs", John says: "There is nothing wrong with the system. The system is perfect." Dany agrees with him, but he adds: The flaw is the human." Meaning that humans have free will, and however we can't stop the law of nature or the phisics from happening, we can alternate it, we can think, we can choose between right and wrong. That's our power against determinism. That is what Agatha, one of the "precogs" is trying to tell John towards the end of the movie that, he still has a choice but he has to see it, recognize it.
There are other alternatives to determinism. Among philosophers the most popular view is that freedom and determinism are very much comparable. I think, the woman who invented "Precrime" is a perfect example of those people who believe in this, the so called soft determinism. When Anderton goes to visit her, she expresses her believes in her system. But she gives room for other possibilities. However every "almost" murder was bound to happen, she states that the "precogs" could've made mistakes time to time, and events could have happened differently. The people who were being put away, could have made different decisions, but she didn't mind sacrificing some of them for the greater good. Acknowledging the failure of the part of the system would've meant they had to shut down the whole system. And she could not allow that, because she believed that, the system saved hundreds of lives. She's also talking about survival, everyone's basic instinct. She encourages John to do the almost impossible, to win against the system. She wants him to choose to stay alive.
Morality also plays a big rule in the movie and it connected to free will. When John realizes there are maybe some innocent people, whom he put away, it hits him hard. He wants to know, what really happened because he is a good man. His conscientiousness can't bare the thought of injustice. He - again - choose to see. Practicing your free will often trigger a chain of event which are inevitable and leading you towards your future. The road to your future can be dangerous and unknown but you can't stop, because time is not in our side. The inventor of "Precrime" says: "Sometimes to be able to see the light, you have to risk the dark." John risked everything to be able to see. And we, human beings should do the same.
We are sleeping for a long time, but it's time to wake up and see what is going on around us, with us! We should practice our rights to choose, to have alternatives. We should not let things just happen to us, determined by external causes. Huemer says in his text: "The only way we can control our actions and decisions is by having them be caused by our internal thoughts and motivations." In the movie, minority reports eventually prove that, free will, and alternative possibilities are exist. And I believe in that too. Our future is somewhat pre-determind, but with practicing our free will we, humans can have control over our lives. We made lots of mistakes in our history, because we choose not to see, but we can change that. We can open our eyes and see. We can use that fantastic ability - free will - to survive and have a better, happier, even safer life in the future.
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