Free Will

Before I go into this topic, I want to make a disclaimer, that all of the below is not fact, and infact it's quite possibly all bollocks, as i can't be bothered to find somebody who has said the same things as me and reference them, as I don't actually have anything to reference to. Also all the facts are wrong probably, and highlights the fact that I need to do more revision on structure of animal cells and other boring sciencey stuff. If you're interested in the slightest in what I write here, or any post I probably do in the future then you're probably much better off reading someone else's writing on the subject.


The subject of free will always fascinates me, as I can fully understand the logic behind the hard determinist argument against it. Here is the first line of Wikipedia's definition of free will:

The question of free will is whether, and in what sense, rational agents exercise control over their actions and decisions.

I would say that free will is basically the belief that you can choose what to do, so I chose to eat marmite on toast rather than jam on toast this morning for example. Instinctively most people feel that they have free will most of the time, so I tend to focus on the arguments against to make life more interesting. In proving the arguments against I prefer to start big. There are extremely detailed predictions of the planets moving in the solar system, the reason being is that the movement of the planets is very simple and predictable. You would accept that one planet is not simply going to decide to stop moving or float away. Now why is this? The reason is that the planets are tied up to the laws of physics, and they aren't single living organisms (more on this some other time), and many of them seem to have no life at all - they don't think.

But what is thinking? Before we get down to that, let's agree on the facts. Thinking is done by the brain, and bits of the brain that do the thinking are the brain cells. We can look into a single brain cell with lots of detail, as it follows the basic animal cell structure with a nucleus, cell membrane etc. Now we can predict what a single brain cell will do, as it is very simple, a bit like the planets in the solar system. It is when you have the amount of these cells which make up the brain of an animal that the cells as a whole become much more much complicated and advanced. This now is a brain, the very brain which controls all of our body and which we use to control ourselves and make decisions. But surely, if we can predict what a brain cell does, we could predict what multiple ones would do together, and eventually what the whole brain does? If something is predictable, then it has to happen and there is no choice about it, like the weather for example. So surely what happens in the brain has to happen? This would mean that we can't choose whether we will have marmite or jam in the morning, it has to happen, as it can be predicted.
For some reason, however, you have the illusion that you can choose what to do. There is an argument that your "mind" is separated from your brain, and that that exists somewhere else, but there isn't any proof for this, and it doesn't seem physically possible that there is an invisible link between our bodies (and brains) and minds somewhere, be that in the physical world, or something different. If someone were to program every single molecule and atom in the universe and predict the future from this however, they would encounter a paradox where if they knew what was going to happen, they could change it, which would be impossible. Someway or another they wouldn't be able to work this out.

Somebody who believes that we don't have free will is often refered to as a fatalist or a hard determinist, not to be confused with determinism, where the belief is that everything is set out, and that if you choose not to follow this then some way or anther it will happen anyway.


The main problems with the theory are society related ones however. So much of things that we learn are correct and good for society are related to free will - not to drink and drive for one example. The whole belief of not having free will is extremely pessimistic and negative as well, 2 things I personally don't believe are good for people and society as a whole (but why care, if everything that happens is going to happen anyway?). The way I think of the whole idea, is that you might as well enjoy life, and so almost pretend to have free will. Most of the time I forget about the subject anyway, so it's not a problem for me personally.


There are other theories about how we could have free will and consciences etc, for example the theory of multiple universes, but none of these are scientifically proved as much as simply not having free will. So to summarise, I don't really care about this stuff in my everyday life, so I don't let it change anything, (not that it would) and I don't recommend anyone else does, it's just interesting to think about from time to time.