Does our capacity for intelligence prove the reality of our free will?
Now question, does the presence of intelligence prove or support the existence of free will? Answer, yes certainly provided we can agree on a proper understanding of what is meant by intelligence and what is meant by free will. So there are reductionist materialists who argue that we human beings have no free will.
We are basically products of our bodily mechanisms. They would say that we are products of our neurons and because of that we have illusion of free will. However the fact is that it is not that even the atheists, even the reductionists they don't live as if no one has free will.
They are trying to convince those who believe that they have free will that they don't have free will. Now if we didn't have free will how could anyone be convinced about anything else? Because ultimately we are just functions of our neurons. So some people according to the neurons their neurons are wired in such a way that they believe that they have free will and other people are wired in such a way that they believe that they don't have free will.
In fact if we are just products of our neurons entirely then there is no point in any kind of activity that requires intelligent choosing. For example Richard Dawkins when he wrote his book The God Illusion he said this book is intended to make a believer into an atheist, into a non-believer. That means he is also assuming that whatever intelligence he has he is writing the book with the intelligence and people will read that and using their intelligence they will realize the folly of theism.
I am speaking from his perspective and therefore they will reject belief in God. So that means any activity involving any form of education which is not just for technical purposes but which is for shaping or changing one's world view that requires the understanding or the presumption beforehand that we are beings who do have free will. If we had no free will then no sort of education and transformation would be possible for anyone.
Now coming to the role of intelligence, yes while the word intelligence can be defined in different ways essentially it means the capacity to use our faculty for deliberation before our decision and action. So we don't decide or act impulsively but rather we deliberate and deliberate using our using rational, sober, thoughtful parameters. So yes the fact that we have intelligence means that we do have free will because for example a dog cannot resolve to fast on Ekadashi.
We human beings can. So both animals and humans have their drives. The drives which are the biological drives for eating, sleeping, mating, defending.
But we human beings have some capacity to check those drives. We have some capacity to be able to transcend the biological drives not entirely but at least to some extent by adherence to higher principles, by higher determination. So yes if we consider free will to mean the capacity to choose what we are going to do and what we are not going to do and intelligence as the capacity to deliberate before deciding and acting then the existence of intelligence points to the existence of free will otherwise the intelligence would have no meaning.
If we are not able to change our actions based on our intelligence then that would mean that we don't have free will. And that means our intelligence itself is an illusion. Not just free will is an illusion but even the notion of an intelligence is an illusion.
So the Bhagavad Gita concludes with yathe chittittha kuru vimrishyaitata sheshena yathe chittittha kuru. So deliberate deeply and decide what you want to do. So this is 18.63 in the Bhagavad Gita and this is a very clear assertion of both human intelligence and human independence.
Independence not in the absolute sense again intelligence is not in the absolute sense but within a certain scope our intelligence and independence are definitely affirmed by the Bhagavad Gita. So yes the existence of free intelligence which is the capable of deliberation before decision that is a strong demonstrator of the reality of the existence of free will. Thank you.