Lvl 2: The Illusion of Free Will - Iliad

          In past lectures, Professor Izenberg presented to us a very interesting idea: did the ancient Greeks have agency, a.k.a. free will? Or were they controlled by the gods? The argument over if humans have agency is an age old question that fascinates philosophers, scientists, and people who lay in bed at night crippled with an existential crisis. So, after centuries of debate, have we come to a conclusion? Did the ancient Greeks have agency? Do we?

          Some people used to argue that the ancient Greeks had no free will, and that their actions were entirely controlled by the gods. But there is a lot of evidence in the Iliad to prove that theory wrong. The gods do intervene with human affairs quite often, as seen when Zeus suggest Agamemnon to attack the Trojans, or when Athena comes to stop Achilles from killing Agamemnon, but they merely suggest a course of action. The ultimate decision to act is still in the hands of the human. Therefore, we could argue the ancient Greeks had agency. The existence of the gods in Greek mythology made an intangible logic become something tangible and more easily understood.

          So if according to the Iliad the ancient Greeks seem to have free will, surely we have free will today as well? Well, in recent years scientists have found that before we are even presented with a choice, our brain sends chemical signals to the body, notifying it what to do. This suggests that instead of actually having free will, our decisions and choices are decided by the chemicals in our environment and in our bodies. Darn science, you depressing.

          There are other things that decide whether we have free will or not. For example, in the Iliad, when Athena whisks away Paris and forces Helen to lay with her, she basically presents to Helen to equally terrible choices: to either lay with Paris, or to disobey a goddess and possibly suffer an even terrible fate. In the end she chose to lay with Paris, but did she really have free will? She was forced to choose one or the other, and while she was the one who made the conscious choice, she didn’t have better options. Is that still free will?

          Maybe humans need a few more centuries before we finally figure out this whole free will thing. 

Homer, trans. Robert Fagles. The Iliad. London: Penguin Books, 1990. Print.

Izenberg, Oren. "Deliberation, Action, and Authority in The Iliad." University of California,

Irvine. 30 Sept 2015

Watterson, Bill. Calvin and Hobbes.  http://www.calvinandhobbes.com/
Surl, Luke. Free Will Comic http://www.lukesurl.com/archives/comic/280-calvinism-but-no-hobbes