Free Will and Determinism

The Problem of Free Will and Determinism

Scenario: Imagine being kidnapped and forced to commit terrible murders, leading to public blame and disgrace.
Question: Are the police and parents fair in blaming you, given your lack of free will?
Core Belief: We inherently believe in free will, essential for planning the future and establishing morality.

Free Will: The ability to change what will happen, essential for planning and morality.
Determinism: Every event has a cause. Science continually seeks these causes.
The Conflict: Determinism suggests our actions are pre-determined, challenging the notion of free will.

Belief in Causes: Essential for understanding and explaining events in the world.
Scientific Success: Technological innovations like skyscrapers, vaccinations, and the internet owe their existence to science, further solidifying belief in determinism.
Human Choices as Part of Nature: Science seeks to explain, predict, and control human actions like any other natural phenomenon.

Even when resisting an urge (e.g., sleepiness while reading), the decision to resist has its own cause.
Even if decisions don't feel consciously caused, underlying causes still exist (pre-conscious brain functions, subconscious desires, or purely physical causes).
The complexity of the brain enables physical causes that cannot be detected through introspection.

Example: Hitler's invasion of Poland is considered morally reprehensible, implying free will.
Cause and Effect: A cause is an earlier event that necessitates a later event (effect) given the laws of nature.
Determinism and Hitler's Decision: Determinism suggests Hitler's decision to invade Poland was caused by an earlier event (c).

If 'c' caused the decision, it also caused the invasion.
Determinism implies 'c' had an earlier cause c1, which had an earlier cause c2, and so on, creating a sequence: … \to c2 \to c1 \to c \to \text{decision} \to \text{invasion}
This sequence stretches back before Hitler’s birth, implying the invasion was caused by events outside his control.
This logic applies to any action, questioning moral responsibility.

Actions involve sub-atomic particles moving according to physics.
In principle, particle positions could be calculated far in advance, predicting events like Hitler's invasion.
This reinforces the idea that actions are caused by pre-existing conditions outside individual control, challenging free will and moral blame.

The Core Conflict: Science (determinism) and freedom/morality seem to contradict.
Resolution Strategies: Reject free will, reject determinism, or reconcile them.

Definition: Rejects free will, accepting determinism.
Core Belief: No one is truly responsible for their actions. Freedom is an illusion.
Implications:
- Punishment is not deserved but can be used to deter crime.
- Difficult to accept and live by.
Critique:
- Nearly unthinkable to consistently deny free will in everyday life.
- Inconsistent to not blame someone for punching you, according to hard determinism.

Definition: Rejects determinism, asserting free will.
Core Belief: Humans are special and transcend natural laws.
Implications:
- Science cannot completely predict human behavior.
- Humans possess souls or unique physical systems not wholly governed by natural laws.
What is Freedom? Not merely uncaused action; it cannot equate to randomness.

Humans possess a unique type of causation, called 'agent causation'.
Ordinary causation is mechanistic, obeying laws and producing predictable effects.
Agent causation does not obey laws; a person in identical circumstances might cause different outcomes.
Free action results from agent causation, not mechanistic causation.

Randomness Problem: Undetermined actions seem random and detached from beliefs/desires.
Example: Mother Teresa throwing a grenade due to an uncaused hand movement.
Clash with Science: Libertarianism requires rejecting all-encompassing psychology and physics.
Anti-Scientific Stance: Requires denying possibility of predicting human behavior based on physical laws.

Quantum Mechanics: A theory describing tiny particles and their behavior, with inherent indeterminacy.
Randomness is Not Freedom: Introducing random quantum events doesn't create free will.
Quantum Mechanics and Agent Causation:
- Agent causation may be impacted but ultimately meaningless if solely tied to quantum-mechanical probabilities.
- Agent causation, to disrupt probabilities, creates clashes with science.

Definition: Reconciles free will and determinism by redefining freedom.
Core Claim: The conflict between freedom and determinism is based on a misunderstanding of freedom.
Analogy 1: Misunderstanding of Manhood: A boy thinks men never cry, but realizes his understanding was flawed and his father's manhood and crying are compatible.
Analogy 2: Misunderstanding of Contact: Things are in contact even when there is a small amount of space in between them.
'Free' does not equal 'uncaused': A free action is caused in the right way.