This is often a rather hard concept to take in as free will seems almost a necessity to peoples lives. Many religious people actually reject determinism as they believe God gave his people free will as a gift. But, this is just not the case and I hope to change your mind or at the very least challenge it if you are an advocate of free will. I'll be using logic, reason and evidence to present my case over two articles.
Firstly: The Logic
To determine if we are free or determined creatures we must assume the following to be true:
1. We don’t know what will happen next
2. We are unable to specifically describe what the future holds
3. Natural events and occurrences are out of our control
Once we have assumed the above we can then move onto say the following:
4. During life we are presented with a number of choices and situations.
5. Points 1, 2 and 3 say we can’t foresee the choices and situations presented in point 4
We have now established that choices and situations come about beyond our control. We then go about answering the choices and handling the situations with our 'free will':
6. We face the choices and situations presented in point 4 by using our free will to choose an answer
At this point we have reached the conclusion of people who believe in free will. This conclusion is what many philosophers arrive at and would go on to hypothesise with a quip like ‘we don’t choose the cards we’re dealt but we do decide how to play’. However, this conclusion is ignorant of two further points which are only common sense to include as well as obliging by the very basic laws of physics:
7. The way we face and answer choices and situations from point 4 is by using previous physical, mental, metaphysical and psychological influences - i.e. Thinking before acting
8. The strongest influences on us decide our decision for the choices and situations presented in point 4
By using the above points we can conclude the following:
9. We are unable to determine our future - From points 1, 2 and 3
10. The decisions we make in the present are determined by the strongest influences on us - Point 7 & 8.
11. As we go through life what happens to us is determined by external factors beyond our control - Points 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9
It would therefore be correct to say the following:
“We don’t choose the cards we’re dealt and the way we play is chosen by the cards”
This in the basic sense is the logical basis for determinism - might I just say that there are many types of determinism but what i'm talking about would be classed as 'casual determinism' - which provides a good foundation to discuss the various arguments that surround determinism against free will.
Some may argue that if we really are determined and have no free will why it is scientists can't predict the future. To that I would say the following. Yes, if a scientist held all data - which is scientifically impossible unless you were a God - it would probably be possible to predict the future. This may give you scope to bring up theological determinism (God having a divine path for us). However to scientifically prove that we are theologically determined - or even predetermined - you'd need to prove the existence of a deity which requires logic, reason and evidence (as of yet we have none). Anyway back onto predicting the future. The simple answer is no we can't. Aristotle said "to pretend that the future is determined would have unacceptable consequences for man" and he is correct. Believing in certainty can be incredibly dangerous and as an example - yes an overused one i'm sure - the members of Al Qaeda that flew into the twin towers were certain they would go to Heaven and be rewarded with 72 virgins if they killed infidels. Perhaps without that certainty they would have been more questionable and not gone through with murder. Therefore; its probable that if we live like we're on a set path we may become numb to the world and thus must always strive to live in the present rather than the past or future and leave all our options open so we might have a larger pool to be influenced from.
Now having just gone through the challenges of believing in a set future I feel I must use Aristotle's story of the Sea Battle to explain further. It goes like this:
Imagine tomorrow there will either be a sea battle or not be a sea battle. It is not necessary that the battle must take place tomorrow but neither is it unnecessary that the battle takes place tomorrow. It is however necessary that either the battle will or will not happen tomorrow.
Confused? Don't be it's actually quite easy to understand. This situation is dichotomous - essentially one or the other but not both - which can be applied to many aspects of every day life. Do you buy a coffee, don't you buy a coffee? But, what makes this story so interesting in our debate between free will and determinism is that the outcome of the sea battle will not be known until after it has happened. Hegel proclaimed "wisdom comes at dusk" and he isn't far wrong. The reason we feel like we have free will is because during the time between something either happening or not happening we believe that our decision is made freely. Actually the external factors - mental, physical, metaphysical and psychological - make our decision and we don't realise this until after all the factors have passed and a decision realised (Basically, 'happened'). Hence we live under an illusion of free will.
In my next article i'll discuss the reasons and evidence behind why we have no free will and why we are very much determined creatures.
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