[Pessimism of the [[intellect]], Optimism of the will](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08935696.2019.1577616) In his _Prison Notebooks_, [[Antonio Gramsci]] critically analysed the authoritarian trends of the 1930s while remaining committed to the potential for socialist transformation, exemplifying his balance of “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will,” a phrase attributed to Romain Rolland. Gramsci’s later notebooks (14, 15, and 17) delve into the evolving political and social dynamics of his era, focusing on concepts like [[Bureaucracy]], discipline, and political participation to address totalitarianism and envision transformative strategies. ^e644d5 We want free will because it would than follow that there is [[Meaning]] to life. We want to believe this to give a coherence to our many separate selves. [[George Gurdjieff]] said we are machines, that the world does not want us to evolve, that evolution is, never, mechanical, but conscious. [[Robert Sapolsky]] talking about how biology controls everything, thus, we have no free will… https://youtu.be/xhobcj2K9v4?si=AZYbTMB4mSDl3etF [[Autopoiesis]] is very important to free will, because it explains what replaces ‘free will.’ [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] Wikipdia article about his views on free will: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche_and_free_will I'm interested in [[Morality]], not just in conjunction with free will but in the idea how it is similar to [[Religion]] in that morality talk can become very divisive. ## Symbiosis Excellent question. You’ve connected two seemingly distinct ideas, but they actually form a fascinating intellectual bridge between evolutionary biology and philosophy of mind. Here’s the breakdown of the relationship, moving from Margulis’s work to the free will debate. 1. Lynn Margulis and Symbiosis Theory ([[endosymbiosis]]) Core Contribution: Lynn Margulis (then Margulis) revitalized and provided overwhelming evidence for the Serial Endosymbiotic Theory (SET). This theory proposed that complex eukaryotic cells (like those in plants, animals, and fungi) originated not solely through gradual mutation and competition, but through symbiotic mergers between simpler prokaryotic organisms. · Key Idea: A host archaeon engulfed (or was invaded by) bacteria, which then became permanent, integrated residents. · Mitochondria (the cell's power plants) were once free-living aerobic bacteria. · Chloroplasts (in plants, for photosynthesis) were once cyanobacteria. · Philosophical/Conceptual Impact: Margulis’s work challenged the dominant neo-Darwinian paradigm, which emphasized competition, random mutation, and "survival of the fittest" as the primary engines of evolution. Instead, she highlighted cooperation, integration, and partnership as fundamental, creative forces in the history of life. Evolution was not just a "tree" of divergence but a "web" of mergers. 2. The Bridge to the Free Will Debate The connection isn't direct from Margulis's data, but from the metaphorical and conceptual implications of symbiosis for how we understand the "self" and agency. A. Challenging the "Atomic" Individual: · The neo-Darwinian view of competing individuals mirrors a philosophical view of the self as a discrete, autonomous agent—the ideal "free willer." · Margulis showed that the very "individual" cell is a chimera, a collective. Where does the "self" of the eukaryotic cell begin and the "other" of the mitochondrion end? They are now one integrated entity. This blurs the boundaries of individuality. If the "self" is inherently a multi-species consortium, the idea of a unitary, autonomous "will" becomes more complicated. B. Agency as Emergent from Collaboration: · Symbiosis suggests that new levels of agency and function (like aerobic respiration) emerge from the collaboration of previously independent entities. The cell's "will" or capacity to act in complex ways is a product of integration, not a command from a single central controller. · This parallels debates in neuroscience and philosophy of mind, where "free will" is increasingly seen as an emergent property of complex, integrated neural networks (which themselves are the product of evolutionary collaboration), not the decree of a homunculus (a little "self" inside the brain). C. From Biological Symbiosis to the "Extended Mind" and Multi-scale Self: · Margulis, along with James Lovelock (Gaia Hypothesis), pushed further, seeing symbiosis and cooperation at all scales. This thinking feeds into ideas like: · The Holobiont: An animal or plant is not a single genome but a host plus its essential microbiome (gut bacteria, etc.). Our physiology and even behavior are influenced by this consortium. · The Extended Mind: The philosophical idea that our cognition isn't confined to our skull but includes tools, language, and social systems. · Impact on Free Will: If our decisions are influenced by our gut bacteria (affecting mood), our cultural symbiosis (language, norms), and our neural circuitry (shaped by evolution via symbiosis), the classic, libertarian notion of a perfectly free, "uncaused" will isolated from these systems becomes untenable. Our will is embedded and relational. 3. The Modern Debate on Free Will Margulis-inspired thinking aligns strongly with certain modern positions: · Compatibilism: The view that free will (defined as acting according to one's own desires and reasons without external coercion) is compatible with determinism. Like a symbiotic cell, the "self" is a complex, determined system, but its integrated state allows for agency. Our "will" is the expression of the whole consortium, not an external ghost. · Emergentism/Biological Naturalism: Free will is a higher-level property that emerges from the biological complexity of the brain, much like aerobic capacity emerged from the mitochondrial merger. It's real and functionally significant, but not magical or supernatural. · Challenge to Libertarian Free Will: It strongly undermines libertarian free will (the idea of a completely uncaused, immaterial self making choices). The symbiotic view presents a self that is fundamentally material, composite, and shaped by countless historical and ongoing interactions. In Summary: The Relationship Lynn Margulis’s symbiosis theories provided a powerful biological metaphor and empirical basis for rethinking the "self" as a composite, collaborative entity. This directly informs the modern debate on free will by: 1. Debunking the myth of the atomic individual, the ideal agent of simple free will models. 2. Providing a model for how complex agency emerges from the integration of simpler parts, without a central commander. 3. Supporting naturalistic, emergentist, and compatibilist understandings of will and agency, where freedom is a property of complex, interconnected systems rather than freedom from such systems. Thus, while Margulis was not a philosopher of mind, her revolutionary work in evolutionary biology supplied a crucial scientific narrative that deepens our understanding of the very entity—the composite self—that is said to possess, or not possess, free will. `Concepts:` [[Philosophy]] `Knowledge Base:`