Free Will and Determinism

By Martin Young

Free Will

First, please understand that the term "free will" contains two words. It starts with the word "free," and ends with the word "will." Thus you need to make sure you understand that "free will" is a combination of two concepts: "freedom," and "will." In the term "free will," the word "free" is an adjective and the word "will" is a noun. Lets define the noun first.

"Will" is the capacity in human beings to choose to do things, or to desire to do things. When you do something out of your will, you do it because you have decided to do it. "Will" in this sense just means that you decided to do it. It doesn't necessarily mean that you wanted to do it, just that you did do it.

We also use the word "willing" to refer to people's desires. If we say someone did something "willingly," we mean that he did it without being coerced or pushed into it. If we say someone is "willing," it means that, if asked, she would do the thing without being coerced. Thus the phrase "he did it willingly" is synonymous with "he did it of his own free will."

"Freedom" means the absence of constraint. A person in prison does not have freedom because his movements are constrained. A caged bird does not have freedom because its movements are constrained by the cage. People can also be constrained and coerced by threats of force. A person held at gunpoint is constrained because, although he wants to leave, he does not do so because he fears that he would be shot if he did. He chooses to stay, so we can say that it is his will to stay, but he does not stay of his own free will, because he does not stay willingly.

"Free will" exists whenever a person's actions are both chosen and uncoerced. A bank teller who hands over money because a robber is holding a gun on her is not acting of her own free will. She unwillingly hands over the money because she chooses to avoid being shot. Thus it would be wrong to say she did it of her free will because she was not free to refuse the robber's demands.

Determinism

"Determinism" is when things make other things happen. (Determinism is also referred to as "nonrandomness," "causality," and "things happening for reasons.") If John gets a desire for ice cream because he's a little hungry, a little heated and likes ice cream, then that desire was determined by those factors. If John buys ice cream because he desires ice cream, has money, and so on, then that purchase was determined by those factors. If John buys chocolate ice cream because he likes that flavor above all others, then that choice was determined by his preference. (Please note that being determined does NOT mean we can figure out what caused it to happen. In this context, "Determined" does NOT mean "figured out.")

"Indeterminism" is when things happen for no reason whatsoever. (Indeterminism is also referred to as "randomness," "acausality," and "things happening for no reason at all.") If John gets a desire for ice cream, even though he is not at all hungry, not at all heated, and does not at all like ice cream, and is not at all affected by anything else that might make him desire ice cream, then that desire is undetermined. If John buys ice cream even though he has absolutely no desire for ice cream, and in fact does not decide to buy ice cream, then that purchase was undetermined by any factors.

Indeterminism and The Will

Undetermined actions cannot be willed actions. Undetermined events are uncaused, and are therefore absolutely random. If we know that some particular action was random. then we know it was not determined, and if it was not determined, then we know that it was not determined by the actor. Willed actions are chosen actions, which means they were determined by the actor, which means of course that they were determined. Thus an undetermined action could not have been chosen by the actor, and therefor could not possibly have been willed by the actor.

Determinism and The Will

Since undetermined actions cannot be willed actions, it follows that every willed action is also a determined action (in that it was determined by the actor). Thus it follows that determinism is necessary for will to exist. Since determinism is necessary for will to exist, it follows that determinism is necessary for free will to exist.

Determinism and Coercion

Determinism is not an external force acting on you from the outside. Determinism is a state of being that applies as much inside your brain as anywhere else. Free will is only contradicted by coercion, and since determinism does not magically create an external coercive force that threatens to harm you if you don't do as you're told, determinism cannot make your will unfree.

How is Free Will Related to Determinism?

There are three ways in which free will could be related to determinism. They are:

Determinism rules out free will. On this view, a free action cannot be a determined action.
Determinism is irrelevant to free will. On this view, a free action can be a determined or an undetermined action.
Determinism is necessary for free will. On this view, a free action must be a determined action.

Your thesis can be one of these three propositions, or it can be an admission that you have not yet figured out the right answer.

If you pick choice #1, you will have to explain how determinism rules out free will. This will be a long, complicated explanation. You will also have to decide which is true, freewillism or volitional determinism. If you pick freewillism, you will have to explain how human beings can sometimes determine their own actions given that, by your logic, they absolutely cannot ever determine their own actions.

If you pick choice #2, you will have explain why determinism doesn't rule out free will. This may consist of explaining both concepts and showing that there is nothing in the concept of determinism that means humans can't have free will. Or it can consist of examining an argument for one of the other two possibilities and showing that that argument is no good.

If you pick choice #3, you will have to explain how lack of determinism rules out free will. This could be a long, complicated explanation, or it could just consist of explaining both concepts and showing that there is something in the concept of determinism that humans have to have in order to have free will.

Your brain is either deterministic or it is random, so you must ask yourself, could I have free will if my brain were completely random, and do I have any reason to think that my brain being nonrandom would take away my free will?

Before you start, I want to warn you do NOT assume that determinism rules out free will. I am aware that many, many people thoughtlessly mouth the common dogma that determinism and free will are incompatible, but few, if any, of these people even begin to know what they are saying. This is a philosophy class, and you are required to think about things before you form an opinion. If you start off by mindlessly assuming that determinism rules out free will, you run the risk of going very badly wrong in the rest of your paper. Your task here is to investigate the issue and make up your mind based on logic and evidence. Determinism only rules out free will if there is a clearly definable way it rules out free will. If you can't see a way being part of a deterministic universe means humans can't ever determine their own actions, then as far as you can tell determinism doesn't rule out free will, and you should say so.

Remember, something being random doesn't mean you can choose what will happen next. It means that whatever happens next will not be even slightly affected by your choices, or by any other preexisting conditions.

Outside of the submicroscopic quantum realm, our current scientific understanding of the world is based on strictly deterministic laws of cause-and-effect, in which nothing is random, that is, nothing happens without being precisely caused by everything that happened before it. Our brains therefore contain nothing random, nothing that is not governed by cause and effect. Therefore, all our decisions are precisely caused by everything that happened before them back to the beginning of time. Explain how this might be seen as a problem for free will, say whether or not it really is a problem, and explain why.

Remember also that determinism does not say we can ever have exactly the same situation again. "Same situation, same result" is just a way of illustrating determinism. You will notice that determinism says nothing about our ability to recreate situations.

In particular, we're talking about determinism in the part of your brain that determines what you do, or try to do. It's determinism with respect to your volitions, your effective impulses to action. We'll call this "volitional determinism." Since the opposite of determinism (or "necessity") is indeterminism (or "randomness"), we'll call the alternative "volitional indeterminism." Since things are either determiniate or indeterminate, there's no third choice. Here are those definitions again.

Volitional determinism (volitional non-randomness) is the doctrine that people's volitions, the impulses that result in them making decisions and/or taking actions, are all follow by necessity from their immediately preceeding brain states. The state of your brain at time t-0 precisely determines the decision you make at time t-1.

Remember that determinism does not say we can ever have exactly the same situation again. "Same situation, same result" is just a way of illustrating determinism. You will notice that determinism says nothing about our ability to recreate situations.

Volitional indeterminism (volitional randomness) is the doctrine that people's volitions, the impulses that result in them making decisions and/or taking actions, are all completely random with respect to their immediately preceeding brain states. The decision you make at time t-1 has nothing to do with state of your brain at time t-0.

Now lets think about free will. You act on your own free will when what you do depends on your decisons and no-one elses. You act without free will when you do something that wasn't a result of your own thinking process.

If your paper does not discuss determininism and/or indeterminism, then you will not be answering this question, and your paper will be off topic. (If you don't see how determinism is different from predetermination, programming, no freewillism, and so on, see determinisnt.htm.)

I also suggest you might read pages 361-413 in Palmer as well.

Analyze the following questions in order. Give each question it's own paragraph in which you state your opinion, back your opinion up with arguments and illustrate your answer with examples and evidence, as appropriate.

Remember to do questions 1-4 without reference to science or to any scientific theory.

1. What is "free will" exactly?

2. How do we tell instances where free will is present from instances where free will is absent?

3. Can people have free will?

4. Are there ever any instances of human action in which free will is present?

5. Can you fit your answers into our current scientific understanding of the DETERMINISTIC laws of nature?
(If you don't see how determinism is different from predetermination, programming, and so on, see determinisnt.htm.)

6. If you can, how do they fit? If you can’t, why don’t they fit?

It's important to remember that you have to do more than simply assume that they don't fit. If you want to say that determinism rules out free will, you have to prove it. You have to show how determinism inside your brain can create a coercive force outside of your decision-making process, like a mind-control ray, or ninja who drop from the ceiling and force you to go to the beach. I have read a depressingly large number of papers in which students said "if everything that happens in your brain happens deterministically (that is, non-randomly) then you don'y have free will" over and over again in various different phrasing without once even beginning to consider whether or not they had any reason to believe such a statement.

The second thing you have to keep firmly in mind is that the other word for indeterminism is randomness. Events that are not determinied are random events, so if you find yourself saying "an act can only be free will if it's not determined," you are really saying "an act can only be free will if it's random," which is to say that it's an act over which nobody could possibly have had any control, and I will expect you to explain how a random (undetermined) act, and act you could not possibly have chosen to do, can possibly represent your will.

If you want to think that determinism is the same as predetermination, predestination, or anything else other than nonrandomness, you should read determinisnt.htm.

7. Finally, if you can’t fit free will in with science, which must give way, free will or science? Remember, if you can't find a good reason why they don't fit, (and assumptions are not reasons) then they do fit, and there is no problem here whatsoever.

Explain, discuss and justify your answer as much as you can.

Remember, "determinism" only refers to determinism. It does not refer to programming, mind-control, predetermination, predestination, fate, karma or any other kind of force external to the person that eliminates or negates her free will. It should also be unnecessary to add that "determinism" absolutely does not refer to nofreewillism or coercion.

Again, remember the determinism is not an external force acting on you from the outside. Determinism is a state of being that applies as much inside your brain as anywhere else. Your brain is either deterministic or it is random, so you must ask yourself, could I have free will if my brain were completely random, and do I have any reason to think that my brain being nonrandom would take away my free will?

Hints

Remember that "determined" means "not random" and "random" means "not determined." If you think that something can be both not determined and not random, you should realize that you're saying that something can be both determined and not determined, both random and not random, at the same time. If you have trouble with this, read indeterminism.htm.

If you find yourself writing things like "free will can fit with the laws of nature because although the laws of nature are deterministic, we still choose what we do," you should know that some people believe that determinism rules out free will so that, to them, if the brain is deterministic we cannot have free will. So, for such people, free will cannot fit into the laws of nature.

Now, if you find yourself thinking that the presence of democracy or freedom of speech in America must be important to answering these questions, click this link: Not Free Will

If you find that you still can't deal with this question without talking about political or social freedom. If you still write thing like "we in the United States have the freedom to ...", tear up your paper and pick a different topic.

Copyright © 2010 by Martin C. Young

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