We must believe in free will, we have no choice. - Isaac Bashevis Singer
Wanna hear a short horror story?:
Free will doesn’t exist and no matter what you do, you can’t change the future that is already written. (not even by a hair's length).
Or…a different one, a better one:
Free will exists. You're in the driver's seat, you're responsible for everything that happens to you and everything that will happen. And there is NO GOD, who will help you in your bad times, no matter how many good deeds(or bad) you've done. There's no plot Armor coming to save you in your story unless you do it by yourself. Cause, YOU'RE IN FULL CONTROL.
I can’t handle this insomnia alone, so here it comes to you.
Does free will exist? Do we really have a choice?
You might say: Easy peasy, I wanna raise my hand (by my own free will) and I raised my hand. Hence, free will exists. (smirks)
Then I might counter: Hmmph. Amateurs, allow me to transfer this beautiful existential crisis of mine to you. (smirks harder)
I regret to inform you of this. But, it’s not that simple. (said by the modern-day pseudo-philosopher and self-proclaimed physicist Mr. All-Know.)
Let me clear one thing first: there exists only one objective truth, either there is free will or there is not. And there might be an all-powerful, all-knowing being somewhere who knows that objective truth. But unfortunately, we don’t have access to that being.
So, we only have one choice left(pun intended): To try to figure out things by ourselves. Ask questions. Try to find conclusive evidence by sheer logic. Discuss and criticize theories. And after everything acquire this taste for existential dread. So that we can sleep peacefully knowing that there is no free will, everything is predetermined and we can’t do shit. What’s meant to happen, will happen. So better enjoy this miserable reality. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
So, let’s go baby.
Before getting into some hyper-philosophical theories, let us clear our basics first.
Free Will, by definition, is the ability of a being to choose its own course of action without any dependence on any outer conditions or previous state of the universe. Or in very simple non-sophisticated terms - if you can choose your own story, then there is free will. If it is already written by some author, then there is no free will.
For example, rewinding to your previous notion:
Easy peasy, I wanna raise my hand (by my own free will) and I raised my hand. Hence, free will exists.
What do you think, Who made that decision? You? Your brain?
If YOU took that decision, then it’s fine. But what if the decision to “raise your hand” was premade by your brain subconsciously? And after forming that decision it lets “YOU”(the conscious brain) know about it.
<aside> ⁉️ The above statement may raise many more metaphysical questions such as:
*Are we different from our brains? Who am I?
Is Consciousness a physical entity, residing in some physical area of our brain? ( no strong evidence of it)
Or is it some non-physical entity taking decisions for you and channeling it through the brain?
But that’s for some other day. For now, there are two YOUs - ‘conscious’ & ‘subconscious’.*
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