Free Will vs. Determinism - Isabella Sportelli

         

        In class, we read and discussed Oedipus along with the Oedipus complex. To summarize, when Oedipus was born, he was fated with a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother. So, to avoid any chances of this coming true, his father left Oedipus on the side of a cliff to die. However, things took a turn when the abandoned baby was discovered and raised by the family that found him. Oedipus learned of the prophecy and decided to leave who he thought were his biological parents to prevent it from coming true. While he was running away, he killed a stranger he crossed paths with who he later learned was his father. He then married this dead man’s wife who actually turned out to be his mother. The irony being that as he was trying to run away from fate, he actually ran straight into it. 

        It’s things like these that raise some complicated questions. Do we actually have free will, or is it all just an illusion? Determinism is the theory that everything happening right this second is the result of an unbroken chain of events. Many believe that their mind is capable of making free decisions like what outfit to buy, what shoes to wear, who to become friends with, or what restaurant to eat at. But are these decisions really our own, or are they all predetermined?

        As humans, what makes us truly unique from other species is our capability of high-level cognition. To briefly touch on the science of it, the grey matter on the outer edges of the brain is where all of the information processing such as thinking occurs. The brain is super highly folded, these folds are called convolutions. Each fold increases the surface area, the more folded the brain is the smarter you are. It allows for more processing or thinking to take place. What sets humans, dolphins, apes, elephants, etc apart is not the size of the brain, but rather how highly folded their brain is. Sharks, for example, have flat brains, and therefore don’t have the capacity to think, they work primarily on instinct. We humans, on the other hand, can understand incredibly complex ideas and laws about the universe, yet still believe we operate outside those laws. It’s important to note that every action you take first originated in the brain. Everything that we know about the world around us is all created within our brains. Each lobe controls different functions. The frontal lobe is where decision making occurs, along with reasoning and determining factors of our personality. In fact, research suggests our decisions are predicted before they are even consciously made. So how does this relate to the philosophical aspect of free will? 

        Libertarian free will is the idea that free will cannot coexist with a deterministic universe. This idea is often appealing to many, as we like to think that our decisions are our own and that we have the ability to choose. By this, meaning eating breakfast this morning was your decision, but if you were to skip breakfast, that would be your decision as well. Once again, every action starts off in the brain. At any moment, you could spontaneously choose to scream or throw something across the room. These decisions were not determined by anything that came before it, but rather just simply your thoughts at that exact moment. This idea of having a choice is what libertarian free will centers around. 

        The contrasting idea is determinism, as stated before, this is the thought that everything that has happened has occurred due to prior events. Many want to believe we have these choices, but would also agree that everything in the natural world occurs by cause and effect. If you were to see a puddle, you would assume it rained. If you were to see a tennis ball soaring across the net, you’d assume it would have been hit. As a result, the physical world can be considered deterministic. Hard determinists firmly believe that we cannot discount humans as a part of the physical world. All of our actions and thoughts have causes that led to them, you just may not be aware of it. Basically, there is no “choice” in the matter and everything is a result of what came before. Newton's laws themselves centered around a deterministic world. Our subconscious mind plays an important role as well. It has been suggested that certain events can have an effect on how we behave. For example, seeing a briefcase can make someone more competitive. They may think they're acting freely, but don't realize the briefcase had an effect. 

        When it comes to evidence, the only thing to back up that we have free will is that we feel like we do. Because we feel free, it is necessary to consider that we actually are. There is a lot more evidence to support the other side though. For instance, humans are part of the physical world and therefore are bound by its physical laws (cause and effect). In the 1980s, a man named Benjamin Libet conducted an experiment where he was able to show that the brain makes the decision to move before the conscious decision to move is even made. Participants were asked to press a button whenever they felt like while hooked up to an EEG to monitor brain activity. Shockingly, results showed that the motor cortex became active before the conscious decision was made. As of 2008, further studies showed that brain activity to move could be present up to 7 seconds before making the actual conscious decision to move. This experiment made it appear that free will was just an illusion. However, this cannot be used as hard evidence against free will because it relied on the participants’ own recording of when they felt the intention to move. So, the ultimate question remains unanswered. Libet's experiment did, however, get people thinking. Are our actions truly free?

        Both of these ideas, determinism and free will, cannot be upheld at the same time. It’s easy to get lost in the details of determinism and everything that goes along with it, but at the end of the day, this is still just a theory. There is no hard evidence to throw out the idea that we can make our own decisions, as it certainly feels like it. 

In today’s world, often people like to live by inspirational quotes. To list a few: 

“What’s meant for you will always find its way back to you.” 

“You are the artist of your own life. Don’t hand the paintbrush to anyone else.”

“Take the risk or lose the chance.”

“One of the hardest things in life is choosing whether you should give up or try harder.”

"Everything happens for a reason."

        I could go on and on, but the point is that some of these quotes conflict with each other. Some pertain to fate while others tell you to make decisions at the spur of the moment. It’s suggested that “you are the artist of your own life,” but when you get down into the details, is that really true? How can you be the "artist of your own life" and trust that everything will fall into place at the same time?

        Another related point that I think is worth noting would be the topic of soulmates. Some feel very strongly on this topic and believe that God purposely placed two people on this Earth for each other. A lot of people claim to "just know" when they've met their soulmate. This could be due to any number of reasons such as having a lot of common interests or sharing the same virtues/goals. As a teenager in high school, I have virtually no experience on the topic, but you get the idea. However, I am Catholic and I do sincerely believe that God has a plan for all of us. Two souls don't meet by accident, there's always an underlying purpose or lesson to be learned. If it was truly meant to be, that person will find their way back to you.

        Maybe not every little decision is predetermined, like your exact thoughts while reading this, but maybe they are. But at the end of the day I believe that whatever obstacles you're brought to, you have to trust that He knows you can handle it and that He'll get you through it. If every little thing is predetermined, then it's no use worrying about where you'll be in ten or twenty years. It could be more than possible that if everything feels like it's falling apart, it may actually be falling into place. Regardless, the world will continue as it always has with people making everyday decisions and actions that they feel are their own. And maybe that's all we need to know. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201709/benjamin-libet-and-the-denial-free-will