ON THE CONCEPT OF THE WILL IN NATURE

Earlier philosophers mostly wrote and talked about the "will" in nature as though it was either a completely blind and groundless force or had a specific intention, but in reality the will in nature is a creative and constructive force. It must also be pointed out that most of the theories of the past concerning free will are not the same as the concept of the will in nature, the thinker who has described the concept of the will in nature more accurately than anyone else in my opinion, was Aleister Crowley and he was not even a philosopher! Even though the origin of the will in nature is groundless, It is true to say that the aim of the will in nature is a type of "harmony", and a satisfaction of the intentions it expresses, which become progressive. All creation is due to a harmony and also an equilibrium of forces in energy and its interactions. In general the will in biological life aims towards harmony, meaning and purpose and these goals vary in degree due to its manifold expression. Arthur Schopenhauer was a profound thinker! Schopenhauer was willing to go so far as to suggest the strange but startling insight, that the concept of the will in nature emanated from the perpetual vibration that exists in all particles and energy, he does not actually describe this in words, yet his train of thought leads to this conclusion with some inference on my part in reaching this assessment, I think this needs to be investigated further though and this concept is what he calls the thing-in-itself, a term he borrowed from immanuel kant. The thing-in-itself, or the will in nature that Schopenhauer writes about, one could say, starts off blind and groundless, but then through its processes eventually becomes more purposive, and progressive, one can observe this in biological evolution. Advanced forms of biological life display an objectification of the will that is meaningful, purposive, progressive, advanced and refined. Advanced forms of biological life attain a high level of freedom due to the will in nature. One can tell how groundless and blind one persons will is, when compared to a person with a more evolved will, a less evolved will tends to make people stupid and violent and irrational and the opposite can be said for a person with a more evolved will. The concept of appearances or phenomena is just another way of saying that the objectification of the thing-in-itself or will, displays itself in all its plurality and appears differently and in many ways as a process that is fully working itself out and can be seen as this so called phenomena or appearance in its expression. The thing-in-itself starts off the same in the beginning of its processes (a groundless and blind force), but as particular phenomena, it displays itself differently. Consciousness is able to shape the appearance or phenomena of biological life by the use of the will in nature, one can see this in evolutionary progression. Schopenhauer claims that the mind is at the service of the will at all times, even though this is the case, I do not believe that the will is a fixed and rigid force, I think that it is progressive and becomes meaningful and so on, due to the influence of the mind and "reason". To "will a self" is a form of pragmatic idealism, it implies shaping oneself in a certain way to fit your "ideal", whatever that may happen to be. The will in humans consists of all our needs and desires and we have many desires and needs and not just a few, our will is a unity of manifold needs and desires. The only thing that truly belongs to us is our "character", therefore it is important to develop our character. In reality a person has no identity except for their own character, for instance, a person can change their name a hundred times and the human race, is only one race. The will must be developed fully and strengthened. It is the will that shapes the character, a person should have 100% belief in their character and will and nothing less. A person should be truthful to their own feelings about their own character and will. Survival of the fittest is an example of the will in nature. The will in nature produces in biological life a feeling of a constant struggle to make sense of our existence and we have to constantly try to understand what it wants, it also gives us the desire to understand the world and the cosmos more fully. Some people believe that the actions of biological life such as plants, trees, animals and people is just the result of a type of program designed by nature, but this sounds far too passive and fatalistic, it is like saying that people are merely automatons that can do nothing that is beyond their program, who programs the program ? People, animals and trees and so on display an objectification of desire and adaptation which can only be described as a form of will, if things were merely due to a program it would not be able to adapt or have specific desires that other programs do not have. It would not make sense to say that a planet orbiting a star has a will or that a volcano has a will, or that the sea has a will, etc., yet one finds that what we call the will in nature is in some ways not too disimilar to the examples mentioned, all these activities come from the same or similar sources of activity in energy, yet what we call the will in nature is an aspect of the processes in nature that we associate to biological life. Most of the people in the world are indifferent to our wishes and desires and most of what we achieve in life is due to our will. The will is a very active force or principle, there is not a thing of any worth that can be done without it, the will is also a very powerful force, the will can resist things, it can go against things, the will can go a very long way on its own abilities, for instance, the old saying; "where there's a will there's a way" implies this. As I have already mentioned earlier the concept of the "will" in nature is an extension of the perpetual vibration and activity that exists in energy or matter which can be viewed as both eternal and infinite in movement. The reason that I mention that the vibration and activity in energy is infinite is because there is an infinite amount of energy, and space is also infinite and energy exists everywhere in space and is all connected as a continuum of activity and also the vibration and activity in energy is eternal and infinite in movement, its movement and activity is without limit or end, it is ceaseless and perpetuates forever. The "will" then as an extension of the perpetual vibration and activity in energy is the prior reality that shapes the activities and potentialities of the occurences in reality and the actual in reality is an objectification of this prior and fundamental reality. Forms and bodies in biological life are a secondary visible objectification, expression and manifestation in actuality of this primary reality. Desires are produced by this prior reality or will and are objectiified into actual tangible reality, teeth, gullet and intestine are objectified hunger; the genitalia the objectified sex drive, these desires appear to influence evolution and seem to be passed on in procreation to a certain extent and this occurs in an exponential manner. The fact that progress is exponential and perpetuates and continues is because the perpetual vibration and activity in energy is eternal and infinite in potential and so is continually at work in a focused way. The actuality of these processes always remains finite and becomes exponential and progressive in degrees. These processes of objectified actuality are always attempting to attain to a more potentially advanced state and condition. And these processes are always aiming towards the infinite but never quite getting there, so it does not matter how advanced progress becomes because it will always be finite in comparison or in relation to the infinite which these processes are aiming towards in potential. It is the "will" in nature which compels biological life to form, evolve, survive, adapt and reproduce and possibilities, potentialities, actualities, universals, ideals and potencies are all in its purview of activities. That we need energy and its vibration to sustain our life when we consume food is evidence of the fact that without energy and vibration our ability for motion, whether it is vital motions such as blood flow, pulse, breathing or excretion would no occur and that would also indicate that our strength and will is founded on the energy, vibration and sustenance of matter itself, and accordingly all voluntary physical motions such as speech, eye movements and all general movements of the limbs are founded on our vital motions. Vital motions are necessary for the voluntary physical motions and what we call the will is similar or the same as our vital motions. The will itself in the sense of "willing" is the active part of the vital motions and the voluntary physical motions themselves would not be able to engage without the active part of the vital motions (i.e., the will). The continuum of processes in cause and effect operate in the sense of the contiguity of relations or connections therefore the energy, vibration and sustenance of the food is converted into the energy, motion and will of the biological organism. Any weakening on the vital motions due to a lack of food has a corresponding weakening effect on the will.
One will also notice that the biological organisms that do not have any translational movement such as trees and plants get a sufficient amount of energy from the soil, the sun and the rain whereas biological organisms which are capable of translational movement require more energy intake due to their activities. The principles of the will in nature is the same in a tree or a plant as it is in human beings except that a biological organism usually requires a brain for independent translational movement as well as for proper thought or consciousness to occur. Any theory of free will or the volitional aspect of the will cannot be complete without pointing out the fact that it would not be possible without a thorough knowledge of how transmitter neurons control behaviour due to the prompting of the mind and its cognitive processes. A study and analysis of cognitive science and the mind is necessary to understand the volitional aspect of the will.