Free will: is there such a thing?

Audrée Mathieu-Laroche
1430355

Presented to
Stephen B. Hawkins

For the Class of

Knowledge, science and philosophy

Champlain College Saint-Lambert

November 20th, 2014

 There has been, through history, a lot of controversy around the idea of liberty. Being free is

essential to humans not only for the liberty of moving, thinking or press, but most importantly the

liberty of choice: free will. Consequently it is wondered; is free will a reality or simply an aspiration.

For the purposes of this essay, the idea of free will, will be clarified as the fact of having alternatives,

more than one choice, and having the power to choose fully by ourself one or another alternative

without considering other people's desire in our decision making (Fischer et al. 1). The truth of the

mater is that free will does not exist, at least not in a meaningful manner. Free will is really just an

illusion, it cannot exist taking in consideration that we cannot change the past consequently we cannot

change the future and that each individual is limited by certain predetermined factors.

Hard determinism is the term used to explain the belief that “the past completely determines the

future” and so “it is not within our power to shape the future” (Rauhut. 100). Such a view on life

implies that free will is therefore an illusion (Rauhut. 100). Since the future is so closely linked to the

past and we know the past only comes in one form so it consequently cannot be changed, then does that

mean that there is as well only one possible future (Rauhut. 100)? If that is the case then it eliminates

all possibilities for free will to exist.

If we continue on in that direction then it is clear that free will is really just an illusion, that our

different options are not even really so as there will always be one predestined to be. No matter what

we do, no matter how much we want to believe we purposely choose one option over the other by our

free will, it will always be clear that it is not the case “since we were determined to choose it, and that

we therefore had no genuine alternative open to us” (Iredale. 16). The reason why we are so inclined to

believe in free will is because it is a vital, essential and unavoidable part of our cultural life (Iredale.

16). Just think about the garden of forking paths, the idea of having many options it conveys is

irrevocably wrong (Iredale. 14). One of those branches will be highlighted, as in to represent what you
were determined to choose because of your past (Iredale. 17). The rest of the branches only serve to

create the allusion of having many option when really they were never even in the contest.

Each individual is limited by factors that lie within them; some people have no talent for dance,

others cannot play musical instrument, and some have difficulty with simple grammar rules (Cowburn.

22). Even if these people had a phenomenal amount of will, they would simply not be able to changes

those anomalies about themselves. Some people are plainly not born to be professional dancers, or

professional instrument players, or even professional writers. Those people have no more control over

there abilities then people suffering from depression or schizophrenia have power over their condition.

Free will is not everything, it cannot change one's future or capacity to surpass themselves. In fact free

will comes only in minuscule and ridicule manners; one might have the free will to drink their coffee

within five minutes or take a whole hour to do so. But such occurrences cannot alter one's past thus

neither can it effect their future.

“The free will doctrine, loosely formulated, is that in general human beings who have reached

the age of reason, and who are not suffering from severe mental or emotional disturbance, by nature

have free will with respect to their attitudes and to actions which are in their power, which they are able

to think about”(Cowburn. 18). If we follow the logic of this formulation, only elders who have kept a

sane state of mind can exercise free will. How is this even logical? How can one judge who can and

who cannot exert free will? Is there even truly an age of reason? And if so how do we know when it is

reached? This definition is basically stating that an elite portion of society has the power to exercise

free will. But then again if we go by the laws of Hard determinism, even a person having reached the

age of reason and who is “not suffering from severe mental or emotional disturbance” cannot change

the past, therefore they can not change their future meaning they cannot truly have free will.
 Free will would theoretically serve to change our future from what it was suppose to originally

be. Hard determinism can ague that the past completely determines our future and since we cannot

change our paths there is no way to change our future. The illusion of free will has been anchored so

very deep in our cultural life that is is now believed people can change drastically from how they were

born to how they end their lives. The truth of the matter is that if you suffer from schizophrenia, even if

you are have the will to change your condition, you will never be able to alter the reality, being that you

have it, you can find ways to deal with it and to masque its effect, but you will still suffer from

schizophrenia. No elite section of society has the key to free will, each and every individual has no way

of changing their past, thus their future shall stay as it was destined to be. Nothing and no one can

change that reality.

 Work cited

Cowburn, John. Free Will, Predestination and Derterminism. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press,

2008.http://site.ebrary.com/lib/champlaincollege/detail.action?docID=10223847. Print.

November 19th,2014.

Fischer, John Martin, et al. Four Views on Free Will. California: Blackwell publishing, 2006. Ebsco.

PDF. October 13th 2014.

Iredale, Mathew. Problem of Free Will : A Contemporary Introduction. Durham: Acumen, 2012.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/champlaincollege/detail.action?docID=10553834. Print. November 7th

2014.
Rauhut, Nils Ch. “The Problem of Free Will”. Knowledge, science and philosophy. Humanitites. St-

lambert: Champlain College Bookstore, 2014. 99-104. Print.