Do We Have Free Will?—Part 1

Whether or not we humans possess free will is an issue that has been speculated about and argued over for centuries. This timeworn debate has swung back and forth, as one side or the other has predominated, often due to the current dominant philosophy. It's similar to the old nature-versus-nurture debate, which asks, Is our personality mostly governed by our genes or by our environment?

So let's begin by defining our terms. What is free will? Here's the dictionary's definition: the power of acting without the constraint of necessity; the ability to act at one's own discretion. This definition says that, in order to act with free will, we must possess the ability to make choices without the influence of any agent other than our own cognitive evaluation.

The opposite of free will is often described as determinism. So what is that? Again, the dictionary gives us: the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. This definition implies that our actions are determined by something outside of us, which is certainly in opposition to free will, which says that we act from our own discretion. Thus, if determinism is true, we have no free will. They indeed are opposites.

So is free will or determinism true? For most of history, people have tended to lean toward believing that we have free will. For example, the field of ethics has assumed that we freely choose between right and wrong. One of the West's major philosophers, Emmanuel Kant, maintained that we must have free will—otherwise why should we seek to live morally? If we think that our actions are not freely chosen, then we must be driven by external forces (determinism), since we're not in control. That can be a frightening thought to those of us who want to feel that our life is under our own command.

But there have also been influential opposing voices to free will. An example was Francis Galton (a cousin of Charles Darwin), who said that our biological inheritance—something outside our control—plays a major role in our choices. In a sense, Galton helped kick off the nature-versus-nurture debate. When genetics was later discovered, the question often asked then was, Is it our genes or our environment? Galton tipped the argument for a while in favor of genes and thus determinism.

Let me note here that determinism is not fatalism. They are distinctively different. Certain events and choices that we make may be external to our will (that's determinism), but fatalism says not only are our actions not under our control, but that they are inevitable. Fatalism says that we are destined to do things despite any decisions that we make; that our efforts make no difference at all. That's simply too extreme, I believe.

A key quality of possessing free will is the idea that we must be free of coercion from others—that we are able to make our own choices and follow our own desires. So this brings up the question of what things might limit my ability to make my own choices. Is a hindrance to my making a choice really something external to me or do I inhibit my options myself? Am I getting in my own way?

Another factor: children do not have the free will that a mature adult has; and they shouldn't have. A child needs guidance from parents, teachers, and elders. Their free will must be limited, until they are able to take charge of thier own lives. The same could be said for any student who defers to his teacher. Until he has mastered some degree of understanding of the subject, the full exercise of his free will could cause him to stumble and fall from the path. The outside influence of the teacher is necessary... at least for a while.

More on free will next time...