Free Will – A Dialogue

Two friends, Adam and Joe, are in a pub having a few games of pool and a few drinks.

Adam : Seven games to nil I do believe!

Joe : Yeah, so I see. You are just lucky.

Adam : Not luck, skill.

Joe : I think I’m just destined to lose tonight, sum up my bad day. I think my wife is cheating on me.

Adam : I’m sorry to hear that…

*awkward silence for a few moments*

Adam : Well everything we do is determined anyway.

Joe : Oh really?

Adam : Yes. Do you believe in God?

Joe : My mother does.

Adam : So would you agree that God in omnipotent?

*Joe nods*

Adam : An omnipotent God would know everything right? Including the future, do you agree?

Joe : Yes

Adam : So if God knows the future, that would mean that the future is already set and our lives are pre-determined. Therefore we have no free will. So it’s not luck.

Joe : Nor skill, though you may say you are “Lucky” to be in this determined life that is winning right now. Good thing my mother’s faith never rubbed off on me though. I’m a man of Science myself.

Adam : Me too. I just read that “God” argument in a book, but it has set my mind thinking. Despite “God” our lives are determined.

Joe : You think?

Adam : Yes, take this pool table for example. I potted the red, which was caused by the white hitting it, caused by my hand moving the cue, caused by a thought in my head etc. None of these actions or events were before themselves; the white did not hit the red before I hit the white with the cue, hence nothing can cause itself, therefore everything is caused by something else. If the prior cause determines the event, that means everything is determined.

Joe : So you are saying we have no free will?

Adam : Essentially. Again the table, imagine these balls are atoms, moving around. We can already build a pool simulator on a computer to predict their movement. Imagine a program that could predict the way an atom will move, then the effect it will have on the next atom, and how they both then move ad infinitum. Put aside the incredible maths, in theory it would be possible. Therefore we should be able to predict the future which means it is already determined and we have no free will.

Joe : That is very Newtonian physics… we live in age of Quantum Physics now. It’s not that simple, at a quantum level we can’t predict the movement of atoms, electrons, quarks etc.

Adam : Quantum Theory is just that, a theory. Even Einstein himself says we just don’t really understand it all yet.

Joe : Ok, so there is no universal unifying theory for Quantum Mechanics, but I still feel that I have free will. I have a choice about what to do.

Adam : You don’t always have a choice. Someone with a psychological disorder, such as a pyromaniac, would feel compelled to start fires. They have no ‘choice’ as you put it.

Joe : Ok, it is different to be restricted in your freedom, if I am in handcuffs I have limited freedom physically, the same as a psychological condition may have a limit on my mind’s choices. But I still have that choice in my mind. Even given an extreme dilemma, if I were given a gun and told to choose to shoot either my mother or father, I could still choose to do something different. Maybe shoot myself, or my oppressors or both parents. So even if my choice may be limited or the outcomes may be bad, it is I who makes this choice. I have a conscious decision process that provides me the ability of choice. I am ‘Free’ to make my own decisions, of my own will.

Adam : This is just an illusion. The brain is physical part of the universe like the rest of the matter in it, an organic machine, which still must obey the laws of the universe in which it lives. Just because we are unaware of the greater forces at work around us, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or have any cause or effect. Wittgenstein likened it to a leaf floating in the wind, and that if the leaf had a consciousness, it might imagine to itself: ‘Now I’ll go this way, now I’ll go that way’. In fact, it is the wind that is causing it, not the free will of the leaf.

Joe : Why do you have this presupposed knowledge that the future has already, or at least as good as already, happened? Until any event or action takes place, it is not real or true or false until the time when it happens, and not before. Your winning streak means nothing, nor your “luck”. If and when you win the next game it will be true, not before.

Adam : What shape are these balls.

Joe : Spherical.

Adam : Think of a perfect sphere. Where is its start and end?

Joe : It doesn’t have one.

Adam : Exactly. Imagine ‘Time’ is the same, spherical. It has no start or end, it just is. We are just aware of what we perceive. We have illusions about the past because we are only rolling in one direction, and are unaware of what lies in front, and lack the knowledge of how to ‘predict’ our path or ‘the future’.

Joe : Ok, suppose you are right. Where does that leave our morality? Suppose my wife is cheating on me, does that mean I should just get over it because it is pre-determined?

Adam : Essentially yes as unpleasant as it may seem. Regardless of whether you praise or blame someone, it is just irrational to do so. There is no fault, nor credit to be issued, because your actions, and everyone else’s, are already going to happen.

Joe : According to you then, we should let all criminals loose on the street to carry on doing as they wish, where would our society be then?

Adam : I never said it was a pleasant reality, but it is nevertheless. Praising or blaming would indicate that that person had an opportunity to have done something differently, but as I already pointed out, they could not have.

Joe : Equally though, by your own argument, the mere action of praising or blaming someone can cause future actions for that person. Even the action that someone did could be said to have been the catalyst of the praise or blame given to someone. A man is hungry this causes him to steal some bread, he gets caught, he is then punished but this is caused by the fact he was breaking the law.

Adam : But it makes no sense to do so. If people have no free will, then they are not responsible for what they do. If your car breaks down, do you treat it like a human and blame it? Do you tell it is naughty and wicked? No, you find out what is wrong and fix it.

Joe : But you are responsible for what you do. Being responsible means that you may be held accountable for what you do – blamed when you behave badly and praised when good. There are conditions for which you are blameworth y. You do an act, it is a wrong one and you have no excuse for it. Similarly for being worthy of praise, you do it, it was a good thing and there were no factors analogous to excuses.

Adam : If the wind blew a slate off your roof would you hold either responsible? Would you blame them for “behaving badly”? I doubt it, that would be futile, as they have no control of what they do, the same way we humans have no control over what happens.

Joe : What about all the bad people in society? We incarcerate prisoners who do bad things for the good of society. Should we let murders loose to be free, only to try and “fix” them?

Adam : Not necessarily, because this is a convenience for society. Also the institution could be viewed as the fix to the problem. My point is that there is no free will and therefore it makes no sense to cast praise or blame upon a person or entity for anything.

Joe : That is a rather convenient view. You are essentially excusing yourself from everything.

Adam : You say you think your wife is cheating on you, imagine I told you it was I who was having an affair with your wife. You earlier agreed there is no such thing as free will, so therefore you cannot blame either of us for our actions; it is just the way things happen, if a little unfortunate.

Joe : *Frustrated* Do you really TRULY believe there is no sense in praise or blame?

Adam : Very much so.

Joe : Are you telling me you are having an affair with my wife?!!?

Adam : Yes.

*THWACK! Joe brings the pool cue over Adams head and Adam falls to the floor.*

Joe : Hmmm. I suppose then you cannot blame me for that then either

Author: Chris Lowerson

Chris is currently a student at Lancaster University and has a deep love of debate and philosophy. Find out more about ‘free will’ on wikipedia

Tags: Determinism, Dialogue, Free Will, Philosophy

Category: Politics, Student News