Treatise I

I have been compelled to write this Treaties because its implications are unsettling for me and have changed my perspective of life. I am writing in the hope that someone would eventually break the logic of the argument and present a better and more convincing argument on our "free will" and helplessness. I would definitely like to throw my thought, which I meagerly call philosophy, into the vacuum around us to criticize and perhaps even change the outlook on life.Humanity or what makes us humans has incontrovertibly two parts: our biological self and the environment. Even an absence of one of the parts changes the whole identity of human. By biological self, I mean our biological, physical and inherited body which constitutes ears, eyes, hands, and everything that we associate as "my body." It’s not hard to imagine, that if we did not have the body or the biomass which constitutes our brain, heart or other organs, we would not simply exist. In other words, our biological self is the every intrinsically essentially condition for us to exist. On the other hand, even environment is important for us to be deemed human. Environment means everything and anything which is felt through our five senses. Therefore, without our five senses, like we usually feel I presume during our dreamless sleep, we would not have any identity or any clue of our presence. Thus, yet again, an environment is another and perhaps the only other requirement for us being human. What constitutes the biological self and the environment is debatable. It could be asked whether the biological self needs to have 2 hands or even a person with none could qualify as a human. Moreover, even the type of environment, whether it is freezing depths of Antarctica or hottest core of molten lava, can be a point of contention. Nevertheless, on a basic level, it could at the least be argued that some form of physical matter and its connection to anything apart itself is needed to form a human being.Therefore, a functioning human being needs a body and a space or environment for the body to exercise its existence. Now, the two constituents should consequently and in effect be responsible for everything that humans do because there are no other constituents required for being a human. However, it is important to recognize the relationship between the two constituents, that is biological self and environment. The body or biological self and the environment have an action-reaction relationship. The body reacts to certain stimuli from the environment and the body's reaction, in turn, becomes an action on the environment which reacts in the form of an action again on the body. Thus, the entire life of a human being is spent reacting to and acting on the environment. Interestingly, both the actions and reactions of the environment and our biological self have been fixed by virtue of our birth. Thus, it implies that our actions and reactions have been fixed. Nobody denies the fact that their body or biological self is due to their inherited traits from their parents. Nobody can change their parents or at the least choose them. If a person is black or white, tall or short, blonde or brunett, its all because of the genes inherited from our parents. As a result, our biological self stays fixed or chosen by the destiny or God or whatever one might think predetermines. Even the environment is fixed again by virtue of our birth. We of course could not choose where are born. Again the place or environment of birth is fixed. Even all the future places or environments will come as a result of the very first environment, which came due to the parents. Therefore, since both the biological self and environment are fixed, our actions and reactions are also fixed, consequently that is . As a corollary, everything we do (act upon or react to) has already been fixed by virtue of our birth. We could already contemplate the fact that certain restrictions have already been placed on us due to our inherited traits which would let us react to certain situations specifically everytime. For instance, if I a short heighted person goes for an interview to a person who hates people with short hieghts and has made company policy against them, then it is quite clear that the short hieghted person will be refused the job. In fact, each time the short hieghted person goes for a job where the boss hates short hieghted people, the result will be the same. Thus, the restrictions were already placed in when the person was born. We can also take the example of me writing this philosophy piece. I had already mentioned the reason or compulsion of writing this piece. However, there was also a cause to the compulsion of writing this piece which was that I had been induced because of my environment--which includes teachers, events, books and others--to think. However, the environment, which made me think voraciously and vividly, also had a cause. Just to take as an example one of the parts which constitutes my environment, teachers I got which made me think were there because of my parents, acting as a cause as a result of its own action, who chose for me a certain school which had thoes teachers. And my parents undoubtedly were fixed and I had not chosen them. Therefore, everything and I mean everything I do could be traced back to when I was born. Since everything has a cause and that cause is either because of a person's body or the environment, everything we do has been fixed for us by birth since the actions and reactions of the body and the environment have been fixed. And the reason of our birth was our parents, who had parents as well. Therefore, the actions I do at the very moment can be traced back to the very first person or cause.Before I get any further, I would like to share another exciting example. Let’s see why you--the reader--are reading this Treatise. You happen to be reading this because you are either someone I know or just some random person who is interested in reading. For the former, you know me because at the least we have met. Let’s just take one possibility that you happen to be my schoolmate. You are my friend because of the fact that I got through a certain school or chose certain major based on which I got a job or just volunteered. And, it can again be rightly assumed that I and you were in the school because your parents chose it for you, for whatever reason. Thus, you reading this Treatise were fixed right from the day (being modest, when in actual it was fixed when the first person came in) you were born, especially if you happen to be my school-mate. Therefore, it could be reduced to a principle that everything that has a cause was predetermined. If the same causes were given every time, then the same outcome would be achieved every time as well. Moreover, every cause also has a cause or causes behind it. Therefore, since we do things due to certain causes, which in turn also had causes, then everything could be traced back to the very first cause, which would also mean that everything was predetermined since that first cause came into being. Now, an important question arises: if everything has been fixed or is predetermined how do we feel that we have the power of making decisions or choosing? We after all do feel that we have control over our actions and we can change our decision any time we want. I would like to answer the pertinent inquiry with an allegory.Let’s suppose we throw a ball. The ball will travel in air in the form of an inverted "U". Let’s also hypothetically give the ball at each point of its flight the conscious that the ball has the power to move along any of the three dimensions. The ball will continue to move along its trajectory; in fact, the ball will do so willingly because it would be the most "logical" and "feasible" thing for the ball. Even the ball will remain contend that it has the decision to take any action at any time in flight to change its direction but its mere conscious does not change anything. Likewise, we humans are the same. All we have is a veil that we can make decisions when in fact we are just channeling the previous causes into new ones. Perhaps, the very fact that we do not know the future also contributes to the veil of decision-making-power. Nevertheless, there is no logical truth in the statement that if we do not know our future, our future is not fixed or predetermined. Therefore, we can safely conclude from the present argument, although redundantly once again, that everything is fixed. But the very thought might make me and many others of similar beliefs heretics. Why? It is so because the thought shows that there is nothing bad or good. It’s all been fixed. It’s all been pre-determined by whomever (in my case: pre-determined by God). Even if there is something good or bad, it takes place because the first cause or God had wanted it to be. Therefore, if a person murders, rapes, steals, gambles or does anything else, it was due to the very first cause or God who made the person do it. The person has no bearing. Even the human rights, which are usually used along with the word "fundamental", might not be fundamental after all because every injustice becomes justified. But does it?I believe the whole problem of injustice or heresy can be dealt if somehow the whole philosophy of pre-determinism can be made to reconcile with justice. Therefore, it becomes fundamental to ask what justice is. Usually, we ascribe certain actions as justice. For instance, killing a murderer or getting the stolen goods back to their owners is usually pointed out as justice. Nevertheless, what is justice? Perhaps the question is too fundamental to even ask. However, I have attempted to solve the quandary.I propose a definition for justice. Justice is fulfilling the purpose of existence. A close example for Justice would be the purpose for a knife. If a knife is created to cut apples, then it would be injustice to the knife if it is used for murdering someone. In fact, it would even be injustice to cut any other thing, even oranges, apart from apples because the knife was intended or created for apples. Nevertheless, as I have already mentioned, the example is the closest thing to the definition because a master creator would keep in mind all the situations the creation would get in, in order to produce highly specialized creation. If we look at the inventions around us, we can sense that things are undergoing continued improvements so that they can better work; in other words, we are becoming better creators because we are learning more about the environments of our creations and adapting them better according to their environments.Therefore, an ideal creator, while serving as a cause for its creation, would have a thorough knowledge about all the circumstances the creation would be under; and, thus, would include the best possible traits which would yield ideal product for the purpose the creation was made. The above thought has its own implications. It follows that God being the first cause and being the ideal creator had knowledge of all its creations, including both humans and environment. Therefore, the purpose human was created also included the circumstances it would be under. As we have already established, Justice is fulfilling the purpose of existence and everything that a human does was fixed by virtue of its birth, which in turn was fixed due the first cause or God. And, whenever certain causes result in anything they happen because of a purpose, which was collectively, established or made as a result of action-reaction relationship between the being and environment. Hence, poverty, murder, hardships; and each and every circumstance we go through are justified or come under justice. Therefore, anything that anybody does or has done or is doing will always be justice since nobody can act otherwise of its purpose of existence as the actions have themselves been predetermined by virtue of our existence as well. This Treatise can allay all the fears that we can even act against the will of God or the first cause because, simply, we cannot. Everything that constitutes us came from the first cause. The thought even goes on to assert that, taking into Islamic view, some people have been made for Hell while others have been made for heaven because God had prior knowledge of their actions which were determined when God made them come into existence. Therefore, nothing was, is or ever-will be injustice because everything that was, is or ever will be done is already predetermined because all of them had purposes to come into being. Nevertheless, I would like to divide us in two spheres of realization. One sphere is the one in which we already are, where our environment is society and we measure everything according to our ideas or thoughts which are consequently products of our environment or at times, biology. Otherwise, even our thoughts have no other source of generation. Therefore, human rights, justice, truth or any other abstract concept can never be absolute they are just figments of a society's imagination as they keep on changing as we keep on increasing or reducing the radius of our society. The second sphere realization is of the first cause or God for which is not limited by any influences and has no history; and for whom, time has no meaning because it is not limited by anything. Therefore, justice might mean different in the different spheres but the second sphere is, from my point of view, eternal absolute or natural because it is limited by nothing.However, one drawback or rather reassuring for others of this thought is that it points to the existence of one or many first causes which themselves were devoid of any causes. And, its hard to contemplate that there could be a cause with no prior causes. The existence of the one or many first causes might just be what we have named God because since the first cause has no prior pressures or causes or influences the first cause/s is self sufficient in its existence and thus, had or even has the faculty to make decisions, which we wrongfully assume even we have.