Free Will

 “I have no choice but to continue to believe in free will.”  (William James,1842—1910)

In the seventeenth century the philosopher Baruch Spinoza concluded that we live enslaved, “in human bondage,” to our emotions and that there is no such thing as free will.  Today’s scientists tell us that our thoughts and behaviors are no more than the enactment of neurochemical processes occurring within our brains.  Freedom to choose and to act is an illusion.  There is no such thing as free will.  Yet, like William James, I can’t help but believe in free will.

Certainly, for some, there is no free will.  A newborn infant cannot choose and act freely. Someone with a severe intellectual deficit cannot do so, nor can someone with advanced dementia.  There are some individuals that our society says are not responsible for their behavior, because they do not have the capacity to choose otherwise.

I always found it ironic when defiant and misbehaving kids were labelled ‘willful’.  These kids don’t choose their actions.  They act impulsively, reflexively, responding emotionally with anger, fear, and frustration.  Their behavior is not from thought and reason.  They don’t choose, they react. These kids would be much more accurately called ‘will-less’.

In my life, there is much for which I had no choice.  I did not choose when and where I was born. I did not choose what genes I inherited nor how I was parented.  My early teachers were luck of the draw, I didn’t choose them.  Nor did I choose the circumstances that surround my life in these troubled times.  As for mortality, I have no choice.

What then is free will as I understand it to be?  It is not something we are born with.  It is a capacity that is acquired, to a greater or lesser degree.  We are freed from ‘human bondage’ when we learn to respond other than to the immediacy of our emotions.  Free will begins with the development of self-control.  It begins when we acquire the power to moderate and restrain our emotions.  In the course of healthy development, we progress from impulsive to reasoning, from reflexive to reflective.

Free will starts when we use self-control to stop . . .  and to think . . . and to reason . . . and to imagine possibilities . . . and to choose . . . and then to act in accord with our choice.  That is free will.

My son and I have had a few debates on this subject.  He strongly believes that there is no such thing as free will and I have not been able to convince him otherwise.  If he reads this, it’s not that he had any choice. He was determined to do so.