Free Will and its Implications

Philosophers, scientists, and other intellectuals have been discussing free will for centuries.  It used to be mainly reserved for philosophers to explain it and try to either prove or disprove its existence.  Now, free will has been the topic of many a study conducted by philosophers, scientists, psychologists and so on.  No matter how much it is studied however, no one has been able to either completely prove or disprove its existence, these studies simply lead to more questions about it.  There was a study done recently on free will and how belief or disbelief in it affects a person's mentality and consequently their actions.

Unbeknownst to me, there have actually been surveys done as to how many people believe in free will.  It seems that the majority of the population believes in free will or, to put it more simply, that we have control over our actions.  However, there has been a slight dip in the actual number of people who believe in this concept.  It seems that the alternative, determinism, has made a slow advance on the psyche of some individuals.   Determinism is the concept by which every decision we make is a direct result of a previous decision and that previous decision a result of one further back.  This continues ad infinitum thus leaving us with no actual decision to be made, everything is pre-determined.  With the concept of determinism, we can not be held accountable for our actions because we were destined to act that way to begin with.

So what are the implications of either belief in free will or belief in determinism?  Well, it seems that a person who believes in free will will actually lead a more productive life, adhere to moral codes, and in general be more stable in society.  Why is this the case?  Well, if you believe in free will, you believe that every action you make is made based off of your own consciousness and understanding of right and wrong.  If you hold the determinist point of view, you have the ability to act however you want because every action has already been laid out and thus you can not be held accountable for any action you make.  It seems to me (and others in the study conducted)  that if everyone held a belief in determinism over free will, society would inevitably slip into anarchy because everyone would do what they wanted regardless of laws or acceptable moral conduct.   In one aspect of the study, it showed that people who adopted a belief in determinism ended up being less productive and goofed off more throughout the day because they felt that they could not be held responsible. 

This dip in the belief of free will could be an explanation as to why there seems to be more unruliness in the world today.  If you look at the news, there are more and more horrid stories of people acting on whims, hurting others, and seeing nothing wrong with what they are doing.  Can this be scientifically proven?  No, but it can be speculated upon based on the studies done.   Personally, I believe in aspects of both or what could be deemed a compatabilist.  I believe that we are presented with a number of options based on events and other actions/decisions that we have made.  We have the capability of choosing which path to go down in the end.  The paths presented to us were in part determined by a path we chose previously.  Thus we can direct our lives.  Perhaps Schopenhauer said it best, "Man can do what he wills, but he can not will what he wills."

So if you have made it this far you are probably wondering where this is all going.  Well, I am advocating for a belief in free will.  Will I change anyone's mind who is already a determinist? Probably not, but maybe through reading the linked article and showing that a belief in free will actually leads to a more happy and productive life, someone who is unsure might sway a little towards free will.   Do you believe in free will and responsibility for your actions?  I sure hope so.  As I mentioned before, there is no scientific evidence either supporting or disproving free will.  The belief in it is based in how we are raised as children, the actions we see others take, the consequences of those actions, and how society reacts to those actions taken.  It is a complicated topic, but one definitely worth pondering.  So what are you going to do after reading this?  If you are a determinist, you were destined to read this article and you might be destined to ponder your own beliefs.  If you believe in free will, the world is yours.  Go out and prove that you have free will, do something radically different today. (Determinists will say they were destined to do something radically different.)  I myself will go to work and do the best job I possibly can, why because I make the decision to do so, not because the course of actions is laid out for me.