Free will might just be an illusion! (Topics I can’t compute - part 1)
This is part one of a series called: Topics I can’t compute. As the name sugguests posts in this series will cover topics that I either partially or completely don’t understand or that are so mind blowing that I find them hard to wrap my head around.
Free Will vs Determinism.
A thought experiment:
Is free will real? Some philosophers think not.
Think of your favourite food, let’s say for example you absolutely love steak! Think about how you feel about steak, how you feel when you’re eating a really REALLY good one. Now, think of your least favourite food. Let’s say it’s cauliflower for example.
Imagine you’re eating the absolute worse cauliflower you’ve ever encountered. Perhaps it’s even starting to get a little mouldy. Imaging what it’s like to eat. The textures, the smell, the struggle to actually get it down your throat. Think about how this makes you feel and what attitude you have towards it.
Now, swap them around. Hate the stake as much as you do the cauliflower and love eating cauliflower as much as you do the stake. Make your mouth water and your stomach rumble with delight at the though of eating a bland, warm, moist cauliflower. And make yourself feel nauseous at the mere though of eating a perfectly cooked and seasoned prime cut of stake. That jucy, wholesome, meaty stake.
Did you manage it? I certainly didn’t. And that’s basically the problem that philosophers are dealing with.
Arguments for determinism:
Yes, technically you can ‘do’ what you like but how much power do you have in deciding what it is that you like? And the rabbit hole goes way deeper than this! Some philosophers argue that what you do throught your life, the actions you take day to day are also, not cometely your choice.
Arguing that everything you do is either a reaction to something you did previously, or to something that was done too you. Now when it comes to things like addiction I can see their point. Drug addicts don’t choose to be addicted. I think if you asked them, most if not all would say they would prefer not to have the addiction.
You could argue that they chose to start taking drugs in the first place knowing they would likely become addicted and that this means they chose addiction. But how true is that? How many people that have lived healthy, social, balanced lives have decided to start abusing drugs?
There may be some, but I think it’s less common than people who were raised by abusive parents or that were groomed by gangs from a young age. It could therefore be argued that in at least some cases, going down the drug route is not completely a result of free choice but a reaction to pressure either internal or external.
Say for example your a surviver of abuse and often find yourself depressed almost to the point of suicide. Then, one day someone offers you a drug that they claim will get you back on your feet again and make you feel happy, productive and fully confident in your ability to take on the challenges life throws at you (and BOY does life like to throw challenges!).
If you were already in a good place mentally you’d likely refuse the offer but could you say the same for someone so deep in depression? And this is the part I don’t fully understand!
Why I personally think free will does exist:
I know of people who have been that low who chose to turn things around and actually succeeded. People who used to be in prison and then completely transformed their lives and who now help others to do the same! Isn’t this an example of free will?
These people had every reason not to change! Every reason to just give up and cease to be but they CHOSE the alternative. You could say that the drive to change in them was a reaction to the lives they were living and therefore not technically a choice but then why don’t all people in those situations do the same thing?
Isn’t it because they make a decision not to? Maybe they don’t see it as an option.
Hard vs Soft Determinism:
Among the philosophers that subscribe to the notion of determinism, there are two main schools of thought. Hard and Soft determinism.
- Hard Determinism.
Hard determinism makes the claim that everything that happens, including every single decision we make no matter how big or how small, is already determined by past and current events. It’s the idea (one that I personally disagree with) that we have absolutely no choice in any of the things that we do, say or think.
- Soft Determinism.
By slight contrast, soft determinism claims that we do have some power over our lives and the decisions we make, only they are partially determinied by past and current events and our own proclivities and predispositions. I would be more inclined to agree with this and I would also add that in at least some cases, like food cravings for example, it’s possible to change some of our predispositions.
Some cases, not all.
So if I had to choose determinism, I’d be more likely to choose soft determinism.
Words from an actual Philosophy student:
Whilst I do enjoy exploring philosophical topics such as this, I’m not actually trained in philosophy. In fact really, the only academic qualification I can jestfully attribute to myself is “Some random idiot that gets curious about stuff” XD.
So, to give a professional opinion, here’s a video by Cosmic Skeptic a youtuber and philosopher I’m guessing you might have heard of, explaining the idea that free will is likely an illusion. It’s a little bit scary to be honest:
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