The Woodward Report

Is Free Will an Illusion?

February 26, 2010

by Tyler Miller

Freedom of the will, the purest thing we surely possess. It is the ability to deliberately and purposefully choose that which to pursue in our glorious, although expeditious, existence upon this brilliant sphere. As humans we differ from each other and other species through the multitude of individual choices in which we decide what exactly to do with our precious allotted time.

But, how terribly baffling, emotionally disturbing, and society destroying, if we were to find out it were all an illusion?

A working definition I will use for free will is as follows: the ability to have chosen otherwise from the way one does choose.

When approaching the notion of free will, one first encounters the concept of determinism. This concept proposes a deterministic universe of underlying cause and effect relationships. One could say that determinism is on equal terms with claiming an 'inevitable outcome' - given absolute knowledge of the past and present, one could with precise accuracy predict the future outcomes of choice and thereby action.

Now this sounds fine and good until one comes across the present day theories in theoretical and experimental physics which are seeking to understand the true nature of material reality at the subatomic level.

In the field of quantum mechanics there is an established idea, verifiable through empirical evidence showing particles not demonstrating a purely deterministic nature. This is aptly called quantum indeterminacy, or more well known as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Basically its premise is that small quantum particles exhibit a nature that is to some degree random. There is variance in the plausible movements and positions a particle will take at any particular time, but this does have a predictability nature by the more common occurances. This is further characterized as having various other relationships depending upon the quantum or some would prefer “energy” state that the system is in at the time. The encompassing theory is described using wave functions for these various probabilities.

Now there is also a vast variety of weird and unexpected things in our universe at the macro levels of reality; one example being the presence of Dark Energy/Matter, that can be stated as a physical phenomena that represents a difference from held laws across the cosmos. This demonstrates the reason for awe and wonder of frontiers that are still left very much unexplained.

Basically, we can do away with a truly and completely deterministic universe, realizing we have some leeway for variance because we see places where it falls apart.

Now, how indeed could this relate to consciousness? We do not yet know and may never fully understand.

Consciousness is a state of ever-analyzing in which one is always forming subjective opinions upon the nature of experience as has already been pointed out.

It would seem that we have complete control over our after-thoughts, by seperating apart the workings of the mind even further, and being able to read and interpret the views of that "voice in my head", which I claim is not really the me, but the me is the one taking this voice into account as well. This view of consciousness, is sometimes called the ghost in the machine, the identification with the true nature of self. So tapping into this, I would say that I feel I have free will because I have the ability to fully examine all input, including even a sort of sub-conscious voice which is hinting at a concrete opinion of the matter at hand. I would say this is right in a way, but not completely.

Another way that I have heard argued about the real presence of a free will is that one can cognitively "feel" when they are losing it. Take for instance becoming emotionally overwhelmed or indeed very angry, and one sees rational thinking and decision making hard pressed. Also correlating to this would be the full realm and spectrum of neurological diseases such as schizophrenia or tourettes, for example, we demonstrate another instance for when a person has a physiological demonstration of what I would characterize as a loss of full free will.

One final way to discuss this, in the quantitatively normal person. Suppose I present the example of full and free, languid speech, in a friendly open and engaged conversation. If we can go on this thought experiment, which all of us have indeed lived out many times, it seems that in many cases the "I" is not aware of the words it is speaking, until the consciousness actually hears them itself. It's not like a mulled over speech one is prepared to give, where one hears the dialogue in proper structure coming like a running script beforehand.

The collective unconscious workings of the brain are hard to grapple with and analyze. Many have tried, and many different theories have availed themselves. We have to undoubtably assume that there is a part of our brain which is thinking and utilizing previous knowledge and understanding without us being fully aware of it. In a human brain of 100 billion neurons and 1000 trillion synapses, there is an amazing amount of processing and integrating going on, even when we ourselves are unaware. The amazing elasticity of the brain in development through and into later adulthood, shows us the amazing capabilities of a biological organ that is far greater than any computer that is present today.

According to some ongoing and past research in the field of neuroscience and clinical psychology, there is a phenomenon whereby the neurological output of the brain in certain choice tasks, shows that with almost complete predictability that we decide on simple choices just shortly before we are aware of the choice in our consciousness. But, one is left to wonder about the larger decisions and important routes along the way of our life and if we have actual control.

I would say that we are the product of our genes, but not just that, and especially with the brain concerned, our environments and experiences. So when it comes to the final outlook for the free will and choice, it is the only certain thing, that one will have limitations to the full relativity of human choice only by one's capabilities. Otherwise I believe it is safe to assume for now since we have no concrete answers, that this brain and it's control of choice processes are within our reach to control, but only so far as we really take the time to analyze the full picture and settle the subjective mind by ways of elucidating some relaxation technique. This is most important in the significant matters we deem for our lives. And finally, there is another strange phenomena I believe that directly applies here, that our mindset and openness to ideas can truly and necessarily be under our handling as well. It never gets old hearing someone speak of the powers of mentally projecting a positive outlook as it relates to our daily experience and collaborations.

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