Dr Brainerd Prince
How do humans say a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ to anything? In other words, how do humans take decisions? How do we move from a place of indecision to saying a firm ‘yes’ or a ‘no’? It could be in any domain of life, say, while making purchases, or responding to invitations or even while making investments.On hindsight, after the decision is made, we think that all our decisions were made out of contemplated surety – that we knew exactly what we wanted, and so we went and got it or said no to it. Of course, there are some decisions with regard to ‘needs’ or ‘obligations’ that are firm, like for example, the decision to withdraw money from the ATM to pay the maid, or choosing to eat when hungry, or the decision to put out the fire that one’s clothing has caught. But some would argue that these examples are not the sites for decision – fulfilling necessity and obligation is taking no decision. Decision is precisely taken when one has to make a choice between two equally good options. For example, choosing to eat lunch may not be a decision, but one exercises a voluntary choice in choosing what to eat – a thali or a pizza.
However, if we reflect deeply on how even these decisions between two good options are made in the moment of reckoning, we find that most times, we are sitting on the fence with the possibility of going either way. My claim is that most of life’s decisions are made while sitting on the fence with equal possibilities of going either way. But before we get to the fence, we need to spend some time understanding what the term ‘decision’ means.
Therefore, we must begin by asking ourselves, what exactly is a decision? In current parlance the term means ‘a resolution’ or ‘a fixing of purpose’. In other words, to be purposeful or determined about something.However, an etymological backcheck on the term gives us three specific insights. Firstly, the term ‘decision’ from the Latin decisionem means a ‘settlement’ or an ‘agreement’. Secondly, decisionem from the stem decidere literally means ‘to cut off’. And finally, from the Old French of the fourteenth century, the term ‘decision’ stressed on the ‘act’ of deciding. Thus, this genealogical trace gives us three insights that reveal a bit more about what we mean by the term ‘decision’. In summary, a decision can be said to be an ‘act of leaving and cleaving’ where leaving is equated with the ‘cutting off’ and cleaving with ‘agreement’.
Often, decision or ‘to decide’ is taken to mean a mental or intellectual process or position. This is truer of life after the Cartesian divide between body and mind. Post Descartes prominence is given to the internal life or the life of the mind, with the presupposition that the body follows the mind. If only we had heeded to Saint Paul rather than Descartes, we would have soon realised that even when ‘the spirit is willing…the flesh is weak’ – in other words, the body need not necessarily follow the mind. Therefore, our unfortunate heeding to Descartes, has resulted in decisions being associated with the mind. This perversion has pervaded much of our religious and legal lives. For example, the general difference between first-degree murder and manslaughter lies in the interpretation of ‘intent’ or ‘internal decision’ which if existed gives rise to the former and a lack of which gives rise to the latter. This is presupposed on the Cartesian divide between mind and body and the privileging of mind over body. In religious sense, the general distinction between salvation and discipleship is again made on Cartesian lines. Salvation, which is of course more important as it determines one’s eternal destination lies in the realm of the mind, on what one believes and decides with one’s mind. The body that needs to be disciplined and follow the decision of the mind is relegated to the realm of discipleship which also is subsequent to salvation. But what both Descartes and Saint Paul have missed is that the body can also lead the mind, like in the case of muscle memory that makes the mind follow the body. A simple example is about an experienced driver, whose body responds to the stimuli of the flow of traffic and directs her path back home, even without the driver having to consciously apply herself. In some cases, the mind becomes aware much later, after the fact, what the hands and feet in consultation with the eyes have done in the act of driving.
If a decision is an ‘act of leaving and cleaving’ where leaving is equated with the ‘cutting off’ and cleaving with ‘agreement’ then the language of ‘action’ or ‘act’ gets prominence. I would like to begin by claiming that ‘actions’ bypass and sidestep the binary between mind and body and brings both of them creatively together within a single conceptual frame. So, what constitutes action? And more importantly, what does it mean when we say that decision is an act? For this, we need to understand what exactly is ‘action’? The word ‘action’ historically has roots in several languages – French, Latin, Italian and Spanish. From the Latin actionem, we get the sense of ‘a performing’ or ‘a putting in motion’ or ‘a doing’. From the stem agere meaning ‘to do’ we get the sense of ‘movement’ or ‘a drawing out’ or ‘to drive’. The French, Spanish and Italian, all have this term primarily related to the legal domain – conducting legal action, or a lawsuit. From this brief etymological study, we get three insights about the term ‘action’ which can be semantically overlaid on the term ‘decision’, as we have already established that decisions are fundamentally actions. First, that action produces movement and motion. Therefore, for us humans, decision making necessarily involves the body. Secondly, this movement is not random, rather a concerted movement of doing something, which finally, we can say has legal standing. Thus, decisions can be said to be movements of a body in an act of doing something intentionally for which one can be held legally responsible. In other words, decisions are responsible intentional physical doing of something. This something that is done, simultaneously happens in two directions – leaving and cleaving. Now that we have conceptually understood decisions as movement, it is easy to understand that if it is a movement towards something then that very act is equally also a movement away from something else. In cleaving something, one is leaving something else behind.
This brings us back to the idea of sitting on the fence. The fence divides something from something else. The fence occupies the position of a no-man’s land. To decide then is to jump to one side of the fence towards something which will necessarily mean a jumping away from something else on the other side. Thus, in the act of cleaving itself is the act of leaving. It is the one and the same act – cleaving is leaving. The responsible intentional movement towards this cleaving/leaving is what decisions are, and when one moves, one is leaping off the fence. My argument is this, that this movement, that has legal bearing, to take on an intentional responsible doing of something, however grave it sounds, happens only from a position of sitting on the fence, with an alternative always at hand, even if one does not acknowledge or recognize it.
So, what makes someone move towards something? Someone can be pushed or pulled to produce movement. That is definitely possible. Or one can nurture a deep conviction, and motivate oneself to move in the direction of that conviction. That too is possible. If one is pushed, or moved by force, then one can appeal against one’s own movement and claim not guilty. But other than being pushed or pulled, if one moves on one’s own accord, then one definitely is mea-culpa for that movement or decision. However, interestingly, as long as it is an internal giving in to a push or a pull, at the level of idea and thought, there is no culpability. But the instant any idea, on decision, leads to a bodily movement towards the push or pull, performs a movement, then one becomes culpable for the movement one makes, even if one is drawn into it, or seduced by it.
Bottom line, let’s not merely watch our thoughts and how we think, but equally the movement of our bodies. It is in the swaying of the body where decisions lie. Therefore, in conclusion, pay keen attention to the movement of your body, because, often, your body has already decided the decisions your mind makes.
