Does Free Will Exist?
The debate over what free will is, and whether or not it exists, extends back to ancient philosophy. From the dawn of a man, we have questioned whether choice is an illusion, whether we really want to make a cheese toasty, or whether our decisions are pre-ordained and controlled by someone or something else. The crux of the free will issue is a trilemma — three propositions that are all individually convincing, but inconsistent and potentially contradictory. In a trilemma, one can not hold all statements at the same time, rather they have to choose which two to hold, and which one to reject.
In the case of the free will trilemma, the three statements are as follows:
- Everything behaves according to deterministic laws (e.g. cause and effect, God’s plan, the laws of physics, chemical reactions etc.)
- Free will is our ability to do other than these laws. In other words, free will is the ability to break deterministic laws.
- Free will exists.
It should be clear that these statements are contradictory. After all, if everything behaves according to deterministic laws, we oughtn’t be able to break those laws, and if we can’t break the laws, then free will does not exist.
Depending on which statement of the trilemma you reject, your perspective on free will is defined. There are 3 main…
