Fate VS Free Will

Fate VS Free Will

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Compare and Contrast The Different Models of Fate, Free Will, and Astrological Determinism

Edmond H. Wollmann

Kepler College: Astrology in Ancient Civilizations

Demetra George advising

First term, September 4, 2000

Throughout the history of the world of astrological knowledge and otherwise, the debate about fate vs. free will has been intense and complex. In this work the assertion is made that we have always had the resolution, and that no two individuals clarified this resolution more completely than Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. The resolution has been overlooked because of the missing and important blending of psychological awareness and advance that has been achieved over the last 50 years in psychology and sociology through research. Discussed are the successful blending of these as well as ancient astrological paradigms that allows us to understand not only the mechanical resolution to this contradiction, but the psychological notions that allow that resolution through understanding as well.

The Babylonians believed that certain disturbances in the heavens that were irregular, such as the comets or meteors showers, were indicative of divine intervention interfering with or disrupting nature, but that by purifications or other rituals of human will they could secure greater blessings (Cumont, page 17). Stoic astrological perspectives (Cumont, 40) conceived the world as a great organism, with destiny connected with an infinite succession of causes, with the regularity of the celestial configurations as indicative of this destiny. Fatalism is one of the major principles that promoters of astrology imposed on the world because of the irrefutable observational evidence of celestial regularity, leading to an assumed philosophic derivation of this fate from necessity, and emanating from the awareness of divine plan (Cumont, 85). From the Alexandrine period and all through the Hellenic period, astrology accelerated the concept of fate and slowly eroded the concept of responsibility associated with free will. (1) At the same time this fostered the usurpation of that responsibility by governmental control, an acceleration of the subjective values of good and evil, and the discounting of the natural state as the inherently positive state. Augustus made a political argument of destiny using astrology, claiming that it was his evidence of his importance in the "new era" in bringing peace after civil wars because of the sign Capricorn's symbolism of the rise of the sun after winter solstice (Barton, 40,41). Underlying these approaches of astrological determinism and free will then, are psychological justifications for the adherence to one or the other side of the dimension of choice or lack thereof. Modern psychological and physics theory evidences the same philosophic paradox as being central to resolving scientific predictive uncertainty and anomaly (2). Modern psychological theory and modern theoretical physics offer the best evidence yet that the obvious paradox of fate vs. free will is not an either/or situation, nor obvious. But that the extent to which each is observed is as much dependent upon the awareness of the participant as the awareness of the observer, and therefore variable in the extent to which fate or free will is experienced or perceived as such.

Early in the 20th century a debate of free will verses determinism was unknowingly resolved by the works of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr through solid evidence of both. Now unlike the Babylonians, the disturbances are at the quantum level and the disruption is the order. The contradiction and paradox felt by these two men as the result of their own work in their theories of quantum mechanics and relativity reflects this fate/free will contradiction and resolution in one. The concept of momentum becomes a powerful component of discerning probabilities in prediction, a key element of the construct called fate. Are these real or perceived developments? In psychological theories of infant development the concept of primacy (3) is crucial to an understanding of the momentum of the psyche.

Insofar as children's fates are shaped by their experiences in the world, it seems reasonable to conclude that their earliest experiences, the paths they first travel down, will be the most significant for their later development. This idea is called primacy.

Plato expresses this understanding: "And in the beginning you know, is always the most important part, especially in dealing with anything young and tender. That is the time when the character is being molded and easily takes any impress one may wish to stamp on it." (1945:68)

But is that impression the dictator of fate? Whether the psyche dictates the physical is also the crux of this dilemma. The persona is the effect of the psyche. (4) In this way then we know that at the very least the persona has a momentum that can be traced to its physical beginning. In the passages from the Corpus Hermeticum we read in Poimandres number 3;(5)

Number 3. The divine man enters into the physical universe and he and nature fall in love and join....man is thus divine and mortal."

Thus this joining is indicative of the beginning of the primacy psychologically, which coincides with the development of horoscopic astrology (the specificity of delineating the persona). But the philosophic question arises; does the addition of a state necessarily include a separation from previous states? Or is the separation only in terms of subjective perceptions which alter the observations? Is this a scientific question of observation or a psychological notion?

The ancients had different names for the components, the resolutions, the evidence, and the results. But the issue was still the same: How to reconcile the apparent paradox and contradiction of evidence of both fate and free will interpreted likewise in similar events.

In the Iamblichus -- De Mysteriis (6) the concept of negotiation with that believed separate is explained with guidelines on the transcendence of the physical order:

But neither are all things comprehended in the nature of fate, but there is another principle of the soul, which is superior to all nature and generation, and through which we are all capable of being united to the Gods, of transcending [p. 310] the mundane order, and of participating in eternal life, and the energy of the super celestial Gods. Through this principle, therefore, we are able to liberate ourselves from fate. For when the more excellent parts of us energize, and the soul is elevated to natures better than itself, then it is entirely separated from things which detain it in generation, departs from subordinate natures, exchanges the present for another life, and gives itself to another order of things, entirely abandoning the former order with which it was connected.

The philosophical problem that we see developing through the ages, is the increasing separation between the physical and conceptual or spiritual and material constructs. (7) In the ancient world the orderly physical component that impinges itself upon the persona, or Heiarmene,(8) are directives of the Gods, and become less and less a part of the consciousness of the collective or personal individual will. In modern psychology it is recognized that Learned Helplessness (9) IS a perception. It follows then, that the rise in governmental control paralleled the rise in the perception of fate and destiny as the individual increasingly gave more power to the government to take responsibility for individual (or collective) free will. Therefore, the doctrines of fate vs. free will vacillate in validity depending upon perceived effectiveness of the individual. Agnoia overrides Pronoia.(10)

From the psychological point of view, self-esteem levels are critical to beliefs of effectiveness (11) and vice-versa, hence a removal of the belief in the ability to control one's environment affects self-esteem. Affecting self esteem or the disbelief in it (or the belief in control) increases learned helplessness and beliefs in fate. Therefore, the Persian era of dominance (12) brought not only the proposed conflict between good and evil (a false choice tool to control collective self-esteem), but increased doctrines of fate. Astrology in the Roman world then moved to strategic effectiveness for political control, rather than its origins as omens from the gods and goddesses of the movement of consciousness.

This same paradox asserts itself in physics.

Two belief systems associated with free will and deterministic perspectives;

1) The behavior of atoms is governed entirely by physical law.

2) Humans have free will.(13)

These statements are irreconcilable. Number 1 implies that whatever an atom does, it has to do. However, if I choose to move my arm the atoms had this choice via me. Therefore, if 1 is true, my arm had to move, if 2 is true, atoms have free will. One or the other must be logically rejected in a non-paradoxical and logically coherent reality.

Plato answered this argument. Plato's theory of forms asserts that the thing is not the construct the expresses it. The form can exist somewhere else; "the man who truly worships the stars does not need to enquire what fate they weave for him, he is lifted above the reach of fate in his communion. By becoming one with the stars, he becomes one with his own fate." (14) By derivation the self moves and chooses to move the atoms in the arm.

Aristotle fails in this argument. Aristotle's perspective was that without the form the thing could not exist. The essential nature of the thing is the form. The form is the formal cause. What it was made of was the material cause. The efficient cause is what made it. (15) From the free will perspective, the essential form must be one with the efficient.

In general the quantum theory asserts that (at the sub-atomic level):

"the atomic world is full of murkiness and chaos. A particle such as an electron does not appear to follow a meaningful, well-defined trajectory at all. One moment it is found here, and the next there. Not only electrons, but all known subatomic particles-even whole atoms-cannot be pinned down to a specific motion. Scrutinized in detail, the concrete matter of daily experience dissolves in a maelstrom of fleeting, ghostly images. Uncertainty is the fundamental ingredient of the quantum theory. It leads directly to the consequence of unpredictability. Does every event have a cause? Few would deny it... The cause-effect chain has been used to argue for the existence of God-the first cause of everything. The quantum factor, however, apparently breaks the chain by allowing effects to occur that have no cause."(16)

This side of the coin represents one side of the current accepted scientific paradigm, that of chaos theory and unpredictability (free will). This view was held by Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who accepted and believed that atomic uncertainty was reflected in and was intrinsic to nature.

In contrast to Bohr, Albert Einstein's perspective represents the other side of the paradigmatic coin;

"God does not play dice", is one of his famous quotes. "Many ordinary systems, such as the stock market or the weather, are also unpredictable. But that is only because of our ignorance. (17) If we had complete knowledge of all the forces concerned, we could (in principle at least) anticipate every twist and turn."

Again we see the ancient paradox asserted with the same parameters as outlined by Chaldean oracles rephrased in modern linguistics. Psychological advance is the key to resolving and explaining this paradox. The issue is not whether destiny or free will is one or the other cosmological truth, but to what degree each truth exists and for what psychological reason each construct is embraced (18). The reasons for the creation of the emphasized end of either dimension, relate to the belief in self-efficacy and the level at which awareness of the unconscious is perceived. Each reality is a world unto itself. The psyche of the observer determines perceptions, and hence the reality of fate vs. free will.

"People always speak of man and his psychology as though there were nothing "but" that psychology. In the same way one always talks of "reality" as though it were the only one. Reality is simply what works in a human soul and not what is assumed by certain people to work there, and about which prejudiced generalizations are wont to be made. Even when this is done in a scientific spirit, it should not be forgotten that science is not the SUMMA of life, that it is actually only one of the psychological attitudes, only one of the forms of human thought."(19)

Hence, one construct. This assertion by Jung can be supported by the work on parallel universes by Hugh Everett (1957) that proposes that all the possible alternative quantum worlds are equally real, and exist in parallel with one another.

"Whenever a measurement is performed to determine, for example, whether the (Schrodinger's) cat is alive or dead, the universe divides into two, one containing a live cat, and the other a dead one. Both worlds are equally real, and both contain human observers. Each set of inhabitants, however, perceives only their own branch of the universe." (20)

The concept of the all being one, of being and becoming asserted by Heracleitus (500 B.C.E.) and the ideas of forms existing in an other worldly state asserted by Plato, allow for this psychological awareness of the self-created versions of reality that both physics and psychology reinforce with viability. The effects that are physical are created by the observer. Hence, astrology, like all other paradigms, has no inherent evidence that lends credence to either fate or freewill, and postulates are created to justify and rationalize the level of empowerment and esteem on the part of the observer who creates their own self-reinforcing astrological version. Astrology flourishes or declines dependent upon the societal precepts held regarding its ability to reinforce or detract from self-efficacy. In this parallel universe of reality, the ability for and belief in the power to alter the course of events through self will and action, is dictated by the psychological level of empowerment either collectively or individually of the observer who employs astrological methods. Hence, when Manilius tells us in Book 3 with the perspective of the Stoic philosophy that; "Fate rules the world, all things stand fixed by its immutable laws, and the long ages are assigned a predestined course of events."(21) he tells us only of his level of Learned helplessness and level of individual self esteem within the constructs of the society that evoked the socially acceptable conventions that agree with that perspective.

His fate then, becomes the distinct observable effect of his own unrecognized choice.

1) Cumont, 86.

2) In normal science, anomalies (free will significators) are rejected in order to further articulate the paradigm, see Kuhn reference.

3) "The Development of Children" second edition, Michael and Sheila Cole, Part II, Infancy, Primacy, page 244.

4) ...a person's unique pattern of traits (Guilford, 1959, p. 5)., ...the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychosocial systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought (Allport, 1961, p. 28). ...the most adequate conceptualization of a person's behavior in all its detail (McClelland, 1951, p. 69).

5) Ascent and Descent of the Soul Quotes, page 1 Kepler symposium August 23, 2000, Seattle University.

6) Ascent and Descent of the Soul Quotes, pages 4, 5, Kepler symposium August 23, 2000, Seattle University.

7) This coincides with the diminishing feminine worship of the goddess seen in the decline in the trust of the environs, a critical element to a balanced psyche, and the overemphasis of the masculine god. Which then accelerates the placing of power outside of the self.

8) Ascent and Descent of the Soul Quotes, page 6 Kepler symposium August 23, 2000, Seattle University.

9) People's perception that their behavior does not matter because of their inability to affect events; as a consequence, they lose the desire to act and become passive. See, "The Development of Children."

10) Agnoia is ignorance, the result of the undeveloped consciousness. Pronoia, is providence, the kind of fate which the enlightened consciousness perceives as he or she navigates between what is known to be alterable and that which is not, or heimarmene (Kepler symposium notes, August 2000).

11) "The Development of Children", The Social Relations of Early Childhood, esteem considerations, Harter, 1983.

12) Outline presentation by Rob Hand and Demetra George, Kepler symposium notes, August 19, 2000.

13) "Philosophy, The Power of Ideas" second edition, Bruder, Kenneth and Moore, Noel Brooke (1993), Part 1, Metaphysics and Epistemology: Existence and Knowledge, The First Philosophers, page 35-37.

14) "The Origins of Astrology", The World of The Stars, development leading up to the Epinomis, page 99.

15) Lecture on 4 causes, Kepler symposium, "Philosophy, The Power of Ideas" second edition, Bruder, Kenneth and Moore, Noel Brooke (1993), Part 1, Metaphysics and Epistemology: Existence and Knowledge, The First Philosophers, page 35-37.

16) "The Experience Of Philosophy" second edition, Daniel Kolak-Raymond Martin, Part seven: Reality, Reality and Modern Science: Paul Davies, pg 342.

17) The revisitation of Anangke, Ascent and Descent of the Soul, Kepler symposium notes, page 6, "Some Important Words Concerning Fate."

18) "The physicist has no need of the flow of time or the now in the world of physics. Indeed the theory of relativity rules out a universal present for all observers. If there is any meaning at all to these concepts (and many philosophers, such as McTaggart, deny that there is) then it would seem to belong to psychology rather than physics." Paul Davies on Time

19) Carl Gustave Jung Collected works, The Type Problem in Classical and Medieval thought, Vol 6, page 41.

20) "The Experience Of Philosophy" second edition, Daniel Kolak-Raymond Martin, Part seven: Reality, Reality and Modern Science: Paul Davies, pg 350.

21) "A History of Horoscopic Astrology", Goold interpretation of Manilius, page 25.

References

Barton, Tamsyn (1994). Ancient Astrology. London: Routledge.

Bruder, Kenneth and Moore, Noel Brooke (1993). Philosophy, The Power of Ideas. California: Mayfield Publishing Co.

Campion, Nicholas (2000). "Babylonian Astrology: Its Origin and Legacy in Europe" (Campion, extracted from Astronomies Across Cultures).

Cole, Sheila R., and Michael (1993). The Development of Children. Second edition. New York: Scientific American Books.

Culinau, Peter. (1999). "Astrology", Encyclopedia of Religion.

Cumont, Franz. (1912). Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans. New York: Dover.

Hand, Robert. (2000). Chronology of the Astrology of the Middle East and West by Period. Virginia: ARHAT.

Holden, James Herschel. (1996). A History of Horoscopic Astrology. Arizona: AFA.

Hoskin, Michael. (1999). The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Carl Gustave Jung, (1971) Collected works, The Type Problem in Classical and Medieval thought, Vol 6, page 41.

Kolak, Daniel and Martin, Raymond. The Experience of Philosophy. Second edition. California: Wadsworth Publishing.

Kuhn, Thomas S., (1970) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Second edition, enlarged. London: The University of Chicago Press.

Lindsay, Jack. (1971) The Origins of Astrology. London: Frederick Muller Ltd.

Patterson, Gordon M. (2000). Essentials of Ancient History. New Jersey: Research & Education Association.

Tester, Jim. (1987). A History of Western Astrology. New Hampshire: Boydell Press.

"The Soul of the nobler nature holds good against its surroundings--it is more apt to change them than to be changed, so that often it improves the environment and, where it must make concession, at least keeps its innocence." Plotinus, The Enneads

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