Session 2: “Do You Have Free Will?
What is “Free Will?”
Science and philosophy define “Free Will” as the human capacity to make decisions or perform actions independently of any prior event or state of the universe. This belief—which is deeply embedded into America’s Judeo-Christian heritage as well into each one of us—argues that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. This, in turn, provides the foundation for our concepts of moral responsibility, criminal law, reward and punishment. Free will also underpins the American dream: the belief that anyone can make something of themselves no matter where they start in life.
But a growing number of scientists and philosophers argue that free will does not exist. Could they be right?
In Session 2, we explore the idea of free will and its impact on our lives through the controversial musings of philosopher/neuro-scientist Sam Harris.
Sam Harris and the “Illusion of Free Will”
You can access Sam’s lecture using the link below. The video is almost an hour long, but I think you’ll find that it’s well worth your time. If your experience is similar to mine, you might find a few of your assumptions upended.
Discussion
Denying the existence of free will is nothing new. The philosophy of Determinism, for example, has long argued that every event in the universe is causally inevitable. When we make a decision or perform a certain action, it’s impossible that we could have made any other decision or performed any other action. In other words, it’s never true that we could have decided or acted otherwise than we actually did.
A more modern (and softer) version of this argument is expressed in the philosophy of Indeterminism, the view that at least some events have no deterministic cause but occur randomly, or by chance. Indeterminists point to research in quantum mechanics which suggests that some events at the quantum level are in principle unpredictable (and therefore random).
For our discussion, please consider the following questions, take some time to write down your thoughts/feelings, then share them via our group email thread:
- In what way do Sam Harris’ arguments against the existence of free will differ from the philosophies of Determinism and Indeterminism?
- What happens to personal responsibility/accountability if we are not free to make our own choices?
- Doesn’t it follow that if we don’t have free will then our choices don’t really matter, so we might as well just do as we please?