اختيار و ضرورت علّي ومعلولي

Free Will and Law of Causality

قاعدۀ ضرورت علّي و معلولي بيان مي‌كند كه هر معلولي نيازمند علت تامه است؛ زيرا با وجود علت تامه، معلول ضروري و بدون آن تحقق معلول ممتنع است. اين قاعده به حسب ظاهر با اختيار كه ما در درون خود به علم حضوري و وجدان مي‌يابيم تنافي دارد؛ زيرا طبق اين قاعده، ترجيح احدالطرفين در اختيار كه فعلي را انجام دهيم يا ترك كنيم، خود يك فعل و نيازمند علت است كه با وجود آن علت تحقق ترجيح فعل يا ترك بر ديگري ضروري، و بدون آن علت، تحقق ترجيح ممتنع است. پس ديگر اختيار و اراده براي ما كه اگر بخواهيم انجام دهيم يا ترك كنيم معنا ندارد و به آن علت مربوط است. به بيان ديگر، فعل اختياري مانند غذا خوردن فعلي است كه اگر علت تامه آن محقق باشد، اين فعل قطعاً محقق مي‌شود و اگر علت تامه آن محقق نباشد، اين فعل محقق نمي‌گردد. براي حل اين شبهه پاسخ‌هاي متعددي داده شده است؛ مثل تخصيص قاعدۀ عليت يا يافتن علت براي ترجيح مثل شوق اكيد يا يك سوي كردن قاعده و... كه هيچ‌يك صحيح نيست. پاسخ صحيح آن است كه ترجيح احدالطرفين ذاتي اختيار است و محتاج دليل جدا از اختيار نيست و طبق قاعدۀ «الذاتي لا يعلل» تخصّصاً و موضوعاً از قاعدۀ عليت خارج است، يعني علت تحقق اختيار، خداوند است، ولي ترجيح احدالطرفين ذاتي اختيار است و به دليل جدا نياز ندارد.

According to the law of causality, every effect is in need of a cause. When a perfect cause exists the effect will necessarily come into being. This law is apparently in contradiction with free will we find in ourselves intuitively. This is because based on this law, the preference of doing an action over not doing it is an act in its own right, needing thus a cause with the existence of which preference is possible. Thus free will does not have a sound meaning, for the application of free will is also bound to the existence of its cause. In other words, a voluntary deed like eating food is one that definitely comes into being when its perfect cause is available. It will not however come into being when its perfect cause is not available. Thus there is no room for free will and the choice a free agent makes. That is to say one cannot equalize between eating food and not eating food and eating when willing and not eating when not willing. If it said that it is a necessary truth that a voluntary deed is caused by its perfect cause, but free will is a part of perfect cause, we can ask again: what is the cause of free will? When this cause is available then the preference will be necessary. To solve this problem, many solutions are put forth, among which are imposing restrictions on law of causality, finding a cause like intense desire for preference, etc. None of these solutions is correct. The correct answer to this problem is to say that one can inherently prefer doing something over no doing it. This preference is not in need of an independent cause. Thus the issue under discussion is beyond the domain of the law of causality. As a result, Allah causes free will and free will causes preference without needing any further cause.