The Illusion of Free Will

By Anurag Nambiar

As I write this article, it seems to be obvious that I am writing this out of my own free will. After all, aren’t I writing this all out through my own choice—didn’t I choose to spend this time behind a computer typing these letters out? 

In fact, I did not; I was going to write this whether or not I consciously chose to. There is no way I could have consciously chosen to write this or do any action. All actions, opinions, and thoughts are subconsciously decided.

Before arguing if free will exists, it's important to outline a definition for the concept. One definition for free will from Merriam-Webster is as a “voluntary choice or decision.” An action that a person did through their own volition. For example, if I had a mango and a banana and I chose to eat the mango (since mangos are obviously superior to bananas) out of my own free will, I had made a voluntary choice to eat it—nobody had threatened me demanding that I eat the mango. At first glance, it seems pretty clear that free will exists, since I had voluntarily chosen the mango. But did I really? 

All actions are either voluntarily done or non-voluntarily done. If I was going to eat that mango, either I wanted to eat it, or I was being forced to eat it. But what if I didn’t want to eat the mango, and I wasn’t being forced to eat it either? Let’s say that just to prove that I had free will, I chose to eat the mango anyways, even when I didn’t want to eat it at all. In this scenario I had wanted to not eat mango, but also I wanted to eat the mango just to prove that I could eat it. The only reason why I ate the mango was because my want to eat the mango was stronger than my want to not eat the mango. I had still eaten the mango due to me wanting to eat it. Even when being threatened at gunpoint, I technically could still not eat the mango—though I would be shot. The reason why I eat the mango instead of fighting back is simply because my want to not die was stronger than my want to not eat the mango. From this we can see that all actions originate from a want, nonvoluntary, voluntary, and actions that seem to be neither.

Going back to the example, why did I choose mangoes over bananas? Why was my want for one choice stronger than my want for the other? Mangoes taste better. But why do they taste better? Because they are sweeter to me. But bananas are sweet too, so why the specific sweetness, texture, and flavor of a mango compared to a banana? What was in that mango that appealed to me more than a banana, and why did it appeal to me? At the end of the day, you cannot choose what you want. And since all actions originate from a want, you cannot choose what you do. You may do something, but you didn’t consciously choose to do it — your body had already subconsciously chosen, and you felt that feeling of wanting to do it. In a completely identical universe could I have consciously chosen a banana at that specific moment instead of a mango? The answer is no, since I cannot choose what I want, therefore I cannot choose what I do. That does not necessarily mean that what I eat is predetermined, it just means that whatever happens, I do not consciously choose it to happen. My body just feels the strong want to do an action and I do it. That want is created subconsciously. Since I cannot consciously choose, I cannot have free will. Yet my body seems to assume that my choices are consciously chosen, that every action I do was done by an active decision I made. 

So why does this illusion exist? According to biologist Anthony Cashmore, “free will is an illusion derived from consciousness, but consciousness has an evolutionary advantage of conferring the illusion of responsibility.” Possibly, the illusion of free will was developed due to natural selection, as humans that believed their actions were self-directed would survive and pass on their genes. But it’s also possible that the concept of free will is more cultural, a way to distinguish ourselves from other animals who we view as lesser than us. Furthermore, if free will is an illusion, it leaves us with some ethical dilemmas, one of the largest ones being criminal justice. If a criminal had no conscious choice in his crime, why should he be punished? If free will is just an illusion, retributive punishment doesn’t make any sense—it would be extremely cruel to inflict pain on another human when it’s clear that they didn’t consciously choose their actions. That does not mean nothing should be done to criminals, just that consequences should be restorative in nature, and if that’s impossible, criminals should be separated from society for both their and other human’s safety, while still treating them with the dignity of a normal human. Anything more would arguably be extremely wrong. Again, human decisions are subconscious, therefore a punishment meant to inflict either mental or physical harm would just be hurting another human with the full knowledge that they had no control over their actions.

The idea that free will is an illusion can be a depressing concept. If you cannot control anything that you do, why not just sit in bed all day? Isn’t that what you’d be doing anyways? And what is the point in life if you are not really making your decisions consciously? While accepting the fact that one has no choice or means of controlling their lives is depressing, in the end it doesn't change our lives that much. Thinking that you should live your life differently because free will is an illusion makes no sense—, considering that free will is the illusion you have a conscious way to control how you change your life. I was going to eat that mango whether I consciously decided to eat it or not. Accepting free will is an illusion doesn’t make the mango less tastier, or hamper any other of your feelings or emotions. One can live life as though they truly have free will, as if every choice they made was consciously made, while still accepting the fact that at the end of the day, we are just organisms acting on stimuli. So while free will may be an illusion, accepting the fact that it is an illusion doesn’t have to change much in your day to day life.