What the future holds
Humankind is keen on knowing things and with this knowledge controlling the universe. The more we know, the more we see we can bend reality to our own satisfaction, necessities and skills. Knowledge gives us the power to do more things, and as we know we can do more, we realize there is much more ahead. Socrates used to say it: «I know that I know nothing», each piece of knowledge opens us another door of more complex things we can know and learn.
There is history and historic files that can tell us what ancient people used to live and what they knew; well most of it, some historic and scientific files have vanished due to wars, religious conflicts or mere ignorance. However, what we can learn from the past can help us know ourselves in the present, but can we learn about the future?
The future is something we all want to know: when we will die, if we will get the job, if we are going to get married, have children, get the promotion, achieve our dreams, etc. Many people read the stars and determine what will happen in nature, but can it tell with certainty what will happen with human actions?
If we were able to know about the future of human actions, then we could lose our liberty, and that is one of the most precious things we have. Determining the future and liberty are things we want to control. There are many things to know before they happen to guarantee our lives… but what if we knew what would happen, would we still act in a certain way even knowing the result?
We may want to know everything, but are we willing to KNOW it?
Monserrat González Cosio González
I agree, freedom is indeed a precious thing, more precious to me than knowing the future. Freedom is possible because rational beings have intellect and will. If we were to endow our intellect with such «gift», like that of knowing the future, our will should be equally endowed with some greater possibility. Otherwise, how could we manage an armonious combination of both faculties if one of them is that «upgraded»? I wonder what those «will upgrades» could be…
Looking into some texts about freedom, I ran into this one which I found interesting: «Freedom for St. Thomas is the manner in which intellectual beings seek universal goodness. It is a condition of the will […]» (Magee, 2015). That last part explains how we can talk about «free will».
Freedom is precious…indeed it is. It is precious to be able to seek goodness in your own particular way as an intellectual being. The challenge or tricky part here is to go for the deeper good; that among many goods you are able to choose the one that truly is.
Reference:
Magee, J. (2015). Aquinas and the Freedom of the Will. Recovered on October 2, 2018, from: http://www.aquinasonline.com/Topics/freewill.html