Free will can be defined as a judgment in that it acts as a responsibility, guilt, sin and many other experiences. A judgment can only be said to be free will if freely determined by the individual without any interference from external concepts such as advice, prohibition or persuasion. The paper provides a keen analysis and evidence to the aspect of free will.
The Compatibilists
Compatibilists claim that the art of free will is fully related to determinism and term it as a significant tool in choice making that is important for free will. It's explained that decisions and actions are a preference of one course of action or choice to others presented to us and for this to be applied one has to be aware of the consequences of each activity. This explanation brings out the argument between libertarians and determinists over free will being somehow linked o determinism as a false dilemma. Classical compatibilists explained freedom to be just the freedom of action and nothing more. Contemporary compatibilists, however, termed it to be a mental capacity in that people's behavior is responsive to reason and many other conceptions which are unavoidable during choice and decision making.
All these explanations make it hard to understand whether free will is indeed existent or just a belief humans tend to conceive psychologically. None has been able to explain whether the strong sense of freedom we inhabit is indeed free will or an intuitive feeling of free will. Compatibilists so far have tried to prove that the mental reality is not in itself sufficient. Classical compatibilists have held on to their view that it is applicable if external forces don’t co-Arce or constrain us. So far this had been unquestioned until modern compatibilists finally made out the difference between freedom of will and that of action. They explained the ability to make a decision is different from its application because all humans believe to have it in them it was deemed necessary that this intuition be accepted.
Incompatibilists, on the other hand, propose a different approach and tend to term all conclusions of free will an s void and invalid. Free will being termed as deterministic then the thought of us being free to choose our actions without interference with the world is merely a mere illusion. They tend to stand by determinism terming free will as a mere illusion. With that, they answer the question an s to whether human beings are free or whether or not their actions are already planned for them. Others incompatibilists, however, accept being free to make decisions but deny determinism claiming that indeterminism is true to some point. Hard incompatibilists have their opinion too that free will cannot be compatible with both indeterminism and determinism.
Evidence that free will is an illusion
Scientifically it's explained that the brain rewrites history every time it makes its choices and to achieve this it changes our memories so that we believe we wanted to do something before we do it. It explains free will like an idea that arose in that it's useful to the existence of the self and satisfies people assuring them that they have control over their lives though limited. They further explained that the illusion of choice might not apply to decisions that are made instantly without giving thought to their consequences. This defines free will as an illusion that one has no control over through placing outside force on any given event, allowing humans to push what they are trying to create away from them. At times this could lead to unwanted results as one is not in complete alignment with their divine self. It's further explained that all that happens in the physical world has an inevitable cause hence any choice we make we could not have chosen otherwise thus proving the nonexistence of free will.
Psychologically free will is termed as an illusion. It's an action which is triggered by genetic or social inputs which one was exposed to in the past. Man does not have control over free will and neither can he control the inputs themselves proving that the self has no free will in decision making. For instance, one has no choice to the kind of neighbors he or she would have or friends to whom they are exposed to during childhood because they had no clue on how they decided during choice making at that time. Decisions tend to be made based on taste and attitudes which one tends to develop as they grow from those near them and the natural environment as a whole. But despite all this recognizing that free will is an illusion should lead to compassion, emotional and social stability as well as higher maturity. It should steer people in the positive direction and not the negative.
Destiny and fate also bring out free will as an illusion. The two are put forward to explain the predetermined course of events or a future that is set in place and already planned. Although at times both are used to bring out the same meaning: Fate implies that there is a planned lineup of events that one cannot deviate from and has no control over. It's related in depth to determinism.
Destiny, on the other hand, implies that there is a planned course that cannot be altered and neither does one have control over, but it does not in itself have any effect in the setting of the course. Destiny is also connected determinism but tries to make no direct claim towards the world of physical determinism.
Omniscience is explained as the ability to know everything that there is to know about the world and all that there is to it. This attribute is often linked to supernatural deities. It brings us to the realization of destiny, and with it, a high level of predeterminism and predestination meaning all events have been independently fixed in advance. As a result, an individual's choice cannot be their own. This goes hand in hand with predeterminism which states that life is planned before it even exists. This reports that all events that take place since the beginning of time and those that are to take place are known by a supernatural power. It explains that human actions cannot interfere with the way their lives are meant to be naturally a deity far more powerful than humans has already planned it all out. Through this free will is judged as void and its existence nullified. Both are linked to theological determinism that all events are set and destined to occur by a monotheistic deity.
Despite all the evidence put forward to explain free will as an illusion it's not. Most decisions are not often instantaneous and when one realizes that all decisions are pre-made slows the actual choice. Choices are not always the only process happening in the brain during such eras. Some deliberate actions at times must be freely willed; this is because the subconscious account does not have an idea what comes after the present step. Most of the experiments used to experiment on awareness and time estimation of accuracy rely too much on actions and extrapolating from such simple experiments to the mental life is not justified. At the same time, all conflicting data and interpretations have been ignored. Scientists lack an independent brain function to measure the consciousness of a generation’s character. This makes it hard to come up with the exact time at which an action occurred.
Usually when one decides to do something they could have chosen to do something else. The being helps us to understand our free will and how it applies to our lives. It proves that it's the individual who thinks, feels and decides. When the self-sense emerges deliberately, it allows freedom from many functions for example speech in ways that are not available in conscious thinking. In the conscious being there is a unique freedom for an individual’s decision making. Their experience programs brains; free will provides another chance for programming for the brain to select from the offered choices and modify its reactions to experience.
The ability for human beings to hold others and themselves accountable this helps one know the existence of free will in that, they could have made better decisions, but they chose not to. Such knowledge is counted significant for for the existence of the community as a whole. Consciousness, on the other hand, is more than a state. It can be explained as a being that is capable of coming up with and initiating freely wild thoughts.
Conclusion
All these aspects explain that whatever we have become, we had some freedom in making it sound at the same time we can shape our future. The brain does not create consciousness, it only serves as a filter and allows primordial consciousness to drip into our awareness in limited quantities. Free will is what keeps us functional for if we knew our fate and destiny, then there is no need to adhere to the same laws we thought we once did. Free will is significant in our day to day life in that when people stop believing that they don't exhibit the will to be free tending to lie and less inclined to punish others who commit wrongs. I, therefore, believe that we are to be held accountable for all the decisions we make in life.
References
Baumeister, R. F., Masicampo, E. J., " DeWall, C. N. (2009). Prosocial benefits of feeling free: Disbelief in free will increases aggression and reduces helpfulness. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 35(2), 260-268.
Blackmore, S., Clark, T. W., Hallett, M., Haynes, J. D., Honderich, T., Levy, N., ... " Pockett, S. (2013). Exploring the illusion of free will and moral responsibility. Lexington Books.
Caruso, G. D. (2012). Free will and consciousness: A determinist account of the illusion of free will. Lexington Books.
Double, R. (2001). Free Will and Illusion.
Heisenberg, M. (2009). Is free will an illusion? Nature, 459(7244), 164.
Kane, R. (2005). A contemporary introduction to free will.
Vohs, K. D., " Schooler, J. W. (2008). The value of believing in free will: Encouraging a belief in determinism increases cheating. Psychological science, 19(1), 49-54.
Wegner, D. M. (2004). Précis of the illusion of conscious will. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(5), 649-659.
