world view with a series of myths commonly termed beliefs in order to,
in some way, justify its behaviour. We must not, however, believe that
these myths are always spiritual or mystical in nature. Many are not.
The legitimacy of a myth depends on many features. Umberto Eco in his
excellent tome 'Foucault's Pendulum' quietly draws our attention to
the requirements needed for the creation of a robust myth and there is
no doubt that within most religious and philosophical beliefs the
required elements are found.
Secular myths, however, are somewhat harder to pin down. This may be
because they are founded little more than intuition. They are
therefore difficult to identify as myths in the first place. Also,
such myths can often serve a very useful purpose.
Let us take as an example the idea of freewill. The idea is so
embedded in our psych that most of us believe it to be a reality. Even
so, an in depth study soon reveals the fragility of the idea. So
fragile is it that philosophers have argued over the question of
determinism v free will for generations; time which could have been
more usefully employed on other ventures. Indeed some eminent
philosophers believe that free will and determinism can sit
legitimately together – the so called Such is the nature of a myth.
We can only suppose that such an idea must appear rational to us in
order to give it legitimacy. After all, our ideas of virtuous
behaviour, responsibility and justice are founded on the idea of free
will; that we are responsible for our actions and must accept our
responsibilities. Yet, there is no doubt that free will defies the
tenets embodied in modern physics, the idea of cause and effect. It
seems to be extremely difficult for us to accept that some things just
are.
I am interested in this dilemma because if we eventually discover, if
we have not already, that determinism is beyond dispute how should we
react? How could we possibly recreate our society to live with such a
'truth'?
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