Do we have free will? This is a question that has plagued philosophers for generations. Ask the average person this, and they will normally tell you that, yes, we do have free will. A human being has the capacity to make a variety of choices in what they do, based on the actions that they themselves decide to act upon at there own will. When arguing this fact, many would then go on to act out something similar to this…
*holding their arm out*
“I currently have the choice to move my arm in any direction that I want to.”
*moves arm upwards*
“I decided myself to move my arm upwards, therefore I have free will.”
This is a valid argument, and who can blame anyone for thinking like this? After all, the thought of not having a say in the choices we make is scary and quite absurd. However, humans never got anywhere without questioning our natural ways of perceiving and thinking about the world, so I’m here to offer a different perspective to this problem.
Every event that happens in your current present reality, and everything that happens in the future for that matter, happened due to a previous event. Let me reiterate, everything that happens, is reliant on something happening before it. Cause and effect in other words. So with this perspective, lets look at our previous argument, for why we do have free will.
“I decided myself to move my arm upwards, therefore I have free will.”
People have a habit of focusing too much on the argument, and not the bigger picture. Lets dig deeper than the premises that brought us to this initial conclusion.
The reason you moved your arm in the first place, was to prove to someone that you do have free will. You are trying to prove that you have free will because I brought the topic forward. If I hadn’t of brought the topic forward, then you never would have moved your arm. I brought the topic forward in the past, and you cannot change the past, therefore you had no say at all in moving your arm, as the very act of moving your arm was predetermined by past events. And as we all know, past events cannot be altered in the present. Yes, one could go on to argue that it was my choice to bring up the topic of free will. However, I may have only brought up the topic because I read an article the previous week on the subject. An article that I read because because someone emailed it to me. They emailed it to me because we had a converstion the previous month about our interests in philosophy…
This could go on forever, but the fact of the matter is, every event leading up to you moving your arm, was reliant on a previous event. We have no control over the past, so we can hypothesise that we have no free will. This idea of cause and causation is called the butterfly effect, the idea that an event no matter how small causes a chain of concurrent events, which can cause significant changes in the future. Therefore, if this is the case we can work backwards from every single event that has ever happened. Everything, from the neurons that fire in your brain to your decision to eat pizza tonight, can be traced back to an endless chain of previous events which caused this current event to happen.
Of cause, all of this begs the question of what was the first ever event in our existence which set of this chain. Well theoretical science would tell us, that this would be the big bang. Is it possible that since the beginning of existence, our lives have been set out by a chain of irreversible events that predetermine our future?
Like many complex philosophical ideas, there is no way of proving this way of thinking is true, mainly due to the restraints of our current science and technology. Nor, am I suggesting this idea is true, I am simply presenting a different way of looking at things. I have presented you with an argument, however as Hilary Putman put it (no pun intended), a philosophical argument is disappointing, and to some extent worthless, without a vision. So lets take this philosophy of having no free will, and our futures being pre-determined and give it a vision. Here is how I propose we should live our lives based on the argument I have presented…
If all that happens is going to happen regardless of what we try to do in order to change it, there is no need in feeling sad and disheartened when life doesn’t work the way you want it to. Everything is pre-determined by previous events which we cannot change. Therefore, we have no choice in what happens in the present or the future. The obstacles and disappointments that life throws at us are not something we should dwell on or feel depressed about. We should accept what is, as that is all there ever will be. Enjoy happiness while it last because misery is always round the corner. Although, nothing lasts forever because will always be another link in the chain of events that alters our reality, wether it be from a utopia to a dystopia.
I would love to hear peoples thoughts on this subject.
–THE LONELY WEST–
The Lonely West 