A Short Discussion on Free Will

What is free will? What is my view of free will? Why does it matter? Here I would like to give a short discussion on free will.

There is not a view of human beings more fundamental than free will. Why? Because free will is the ability to make moral choices. If we did not have free will, we would not be able to be held morally responsible. All of our behaviors are based on free will. As such, all of our behaviors are different degrees of right and wrong.

There are three main views of free will.

The first is determinism, which states that free will is an illusion. This view does not make much sense as it means that what we think is right or wrong is what is going to happen whether we have consciousness or not. Consciousness is just window dressing in this view. It is a view I wholeheartedly reject. Why? Because it would amount to our behaviors not being grounded in morality since what we do is going to happen no matter what. So with this view, it is pointless to think of humans as morally responsible, which makes no intuitive sense. It is also overly reductionistic because it reduces everything to a prior cause. So because the universe exists, that means that what you do is set in stone from eternity past. There is no deviation in what can happen. Everything is just a natural consequence of what happened previously.

The next view is libertarian free will. This is the view that our behaviors are indeterminant, meaning, our behaviors could be one way or they could be another way. This view is largely grounded in consciousness. What that means is that sometimes, humans have the ability to do one thing or another. It is like a fork in the road where there is a real possibility of picking left over right or right over left. In this view, humans are most free. They can do what they want without anyone or anything restraining their behaviors. The biggest problem I have with this view is that it amounts to humans having a secret power that only they know about that gives them the ability to choose between one thing or another.

Then there is compatibilism. In this view, determinism is true, but humans really are morally responsible. It means that whatever you do is going to happen anyway, but you still have the freedom to do what you want. The way I like to talk about this view is that it is a way of saying nothing prevents what you do but what you are going to do is more or less set in stone. Things will always have a prior cause even though humans still behave as they will and as such are still morally responsible. This is the view that I think is the most accurate regarding determinism and free will. You don't really have the ability to do otherwise, but you can still act meaningfully in the world.

And then there is my personal view of free will. Allow me to unpack this.

My view is that humans are inherently biased. As such, consciousness is not a deterministic thing, but more so a consequence of the power of thought. And it really matters what our thoughts are based on. In this way, I believe that humans can choose between choice A and choice B which contradict each other, but both choice A and choice B are both not fully attainable. What choice A and choice B represent are polar opposites between right and wrong. We have the freedom to do as we will. We can do the good thing or the bad thing. But that is not the full story. Why? Because what we do only represents a singular reality in the world. We cannot actualize both choice A and choice B at the same time. Only one thing will happen in reality. And remember how I said that these represent a spectrum? This is important as it has to do with consciousness. You see, if choice A is the perfect thing to do and choice B is the most evil thing to do, then I don't think people really operate on the far extremes ever.

This has to do with consciousness because our consciousness is fluid. We are not the same all the time. Our "rightness" or "wrongness" fluctuates over time. So it is not the case that we do anything that is purely choice A or purely choice B. Why? Because the extremes are harder to attain. Also, the natural makeup of our consciousness itself is not purely synonymous with choice A or choice B.

Along with this, we might also say that what exists can only be one way. We will call this choice A for now. Now, choice A is always going to happen. Choice A cannot not happen because the moment that our choice gets actualized is the moment that it collapses into reality which leaves only one thing that happens, which is choice A. Now, choice A in this regard is synonymous with truth. So the only thing that actually happens is what is true. Therefore, all our choices are not a choice between choice A and choice B, but rather, various degrees to which choice A is actualized. So we can only choose A, but we can only choose A in a limited sense. We can only choose different degrees of choice A, in other words. Why? Because when our choices actualize, all we are left with is A. So A is going to get done no matter how much or how little we want A to happen.

But does that mean we don't actually have a choice? No. Because we still engage our minds in the act of choosing. We still have to decide how much we are going to resonate with A. Therefore, we are trying to decide how much we are going to resonate with the truth, or what is actual. This means that there is a difference between A and how our consciousness perceives A. Consciousness is not a material thing. It is not made of any material. So, given we can only enact A, and given our consciousness is immaterial, this means that the immaterial part of us has different orientations toward A. This is a mental property. It is not a power that allows us to choose. It is an orientation.

Now, what decides how we respond to A? That would be what the nature of our consciousness is. Remember when I said that we all have different orientations toward A? That is exactly where I am going with this. We all have a baseline degree we agree with choice A. As such, we all have a baseline degree we agree with truth. But I also said our consciousness is not static. Therefore, we all, at any given time, have a range to which we will agree with A where A is the truth. But since our consciousness flows in a spectrum, our will itself fluctuates between being more and less actualized. So our free will functions more like waves than based on static behaviors.

And that's a little look at my view of free will.

That's it for this one!

God bless you! Until next time!