Philosophers and scientists have
debated the issue of free will for centuries. In general, the consensus among seems
to be that there is no such thing as free will. The problem is the premise of
the debate. Those who have already decided against free will frame the issue so
that no other conclusion can be drawn. Proper definition of terms is crucial to
stay out of rhetorical weeds and traps.
For example, people will say that
every action or event has a cause. Therefore, the event was determined and did
not occur “freely.” To occur freely, an action or event would have to occur
randomly. I have had professional statisticians tell me that in the real world
almost nothing is truly random. Too many things are inter-dependent; that is,
what happens to one thing creates a bias of action on something else.
Another argument is that every
action or event has a certain probability of occurrence, ranging from zero to
100% chance that it will occur. Thus, the argument is that anything that can occur will occur, eventually. It if has a low probability, happening may just
take a long time. It does not require being willed into existence.
Before we can go much further in
this examination, we have to understand the word, “will.” This word implies an
intent from an active, living agent that chooses to do a certain thing or avoid
doing it. So, I suppose you could say that an ant has a will to go search for
food, for example. But no one would suggest that an ant can freely do that. It is compelled by a biological need for food and
sensory detection of odor cues that propel the ant to move in the direction of
the food. This technicality aside, common use of the word “will” is that this
is a goal or intent that higher animals have, and they may be constrained from
complete freedom. In fact, a key part of the common definitions of will is that
it requires consciousness. But free will opponents promote their foreordained
conclusion that people can’t have free will by claiming that consciousness itself has no agency. It is just
an observer. Space prevents me for challenging this specious argument here, but
I have defended conscious agency in other publications.
The most obvious constraint is lack
of freedom of action. I cannot will to fly by flapping my arms, because that is
not within my biological repertoire. I am not free to crack a safe, because I
do not know how. So let us not confuse freedom of action with free will. Free
will can only exercised if there is freedom of action for what one wills.
As for “free” will or “free” won’t,
the premise is that one has two or more available choices and that nothing
compels selection of one over the other. You may well have different
probabilities for a given choice, each biased by certain contingencies
associated with each choice. For example, the probability that I will have a
breakfast tomorrow morning is highly likely, assuming I have the freedom of
action by still being alive and that there are things in my kitchen to eat. But, the probability is not 100%. I may get
nauseous and not want to eat. I may have to fast because I am getting a medical
blood test. But I can over-rule the forbidding factors. I can choose to eat,
knowing that it may cause me to vomit (but maybe it won’t and in fact might
settle my stomach if I pick something really digestible). I can choose to risk
creating bad test numbers or skip the blood test to do it on another day that
seems more convenient.
Here is how a free-will argument
might proceed:
Determinist: “Whatever choice is made, it will be influenced by
some factor that your reasoning develops. You used reasoning to change the
probabilities and thus biased your choice. You simply redefine free will in a
way that allows us to have it.”
Free-will Believer: “Well, you defined free will in a way that does
not allow us to have it. It is specious logic to define things out of
existence. The problem is that you have tried to foreordain your conclusion by
saying that reason is not an acceptable basis for freely making a choice. This
is a rhetorical trick. I am free to think this out, whatever way my knowledge
and thinking skills allow. Remember, the reasoning only affects the
probabilities. Reason does not compel a given choice. It merely alters the
probabilities. People do make illogical or dumb choices from time to time.”
Determinist: “But you are constrained by the limits of your
knowledge and brain. People make dumb choices when they are being dumb.”
Free-will Believer: “Yes, but within those limits, I have free
choice. I may even make a choice that my reasoning concludes to be a bad choice,
just for the hell of it—or
just to counter your argument.”
Determinist: “Do you not see that just for the hell of it is an emotion that has biased your
decision. Thus it is not free?”
Free-will Believer: “Note that I said may, not I will. I still
reserve the possibility to choose. Do you not seen we have fallen into an
infinite regress trap? Your line of argument cannot be pursued to a definitive
conclusion.”
Thus, it seems to me that
philosophical logic is not useful for this kind of debate. Here is a case where
common sense makes more sense. In any choice that is not forced, we are free to
change the probabilities or to confound them—for
whatever reason or emotion.
Sources:
Klemm, W. R.
2016. Making a Scientific Case for
Conscious Agency and Free Will.
New York: Elsevier.
Klemm, W. R.
(2018). Reason and Creativity May Require Free Will, Chapter 2, In .
Hauppauge, New York: Nova.
Klemm, W. R.
(2015). Neurobiology Perspectives on Agency: 10 Axioms and 10 Proposition,
Chapter 4. Constraints of Agency.
Explorations of Theory in Everyday Life. edited by Graig W. Gruber et al. Annals of
Theoretical Psychology, Vol. 12, p.51-88.
Klemm, W. R.
2010. Free will debates: simple experiments are not so simple. Advances in
Cognitive Psychology. 6: (6) 47-65.
