Free Will is a Misnomer. Be Free of It.

The universe is a dynamic place that is constantly changing, but what determines the state of anything in the universe at any given moment? Only its state in the previous moment and the laws of nature. That’s all. Let’s say you are able to take a snapshot of the current moment of the entire universe along with all its constituents — all matter, all energy, physical, non-physical, everything. The current state of everything in this snapshot is a result of whatever state everything was in the previous moment and the laws of nature acting on that state.

For instance, the four fundamental physical forces i.e. gravitational, electromagnetic, weak and strong nuclear forces, are constantly exerted on an entity (like an object or a particle) by other entities that are close enough, and the state of an entity in the current moment is determined by the state of that entity in the previous moment and the resultant cumulative force acting on it. For example, the position and velocity of earth in the current moment is largely determined by its position and velocity in the previous moment and the gravitational force of sun acting on it, or the coordinates and movement of a charged particle in the current moment is determined by the coordinates and movement of that particle in the previous moment and the electromagnetic forces exerted on it by other nearby charged particles. In the same way, the various physical and non-physical laws of nature, such as the laws of motion, thermodynamics, conservation, quantum mechanics, mathematics, etc. act on the relevant entities across the entire universe to determine their current state based on their state in the previous moment.

So, the current moment is the effect of the previous moment which itself is an effect of the moment prior to it and so on. Similarly, the current moment is the cause of the next moment which itself will be a cause of the moment after it and so on. This can be extended in both directions indefinitely resulting in a beginningless and endless chain of cause and effect. The universe could have started with a big bang and might end in a big crunch but whatever was before the big bang and will be there after the big crunch also follows the chain of causality resulting in countless cyclical bangs and crunches.

Now, let’s see if there is any room for free will to exist in this infinite deterministic chain. Free will is defined as the ability to think and act voluntarily at one’s own discretion. We all know that thinking is nothing but some material activity in the brain which is just a blob of physical matter that also follows the laws of nature as the rest of the universe. Even if we believe in a mind separate from the brain, that is also a blob of matter only, although subtler matter that obeys certain subtler laws, but still very much within the domain of matter and hence the following analysis is perfectly applicable to the mind too.

So, as we were analyzing, thinking is nothing but some material activity in the brain. Any thought that arises in the current moment is based on the state of the brain in the previous moment combined with certain stimuli triggered via sense perceptions, which are also nothing but material activities in the brain. The brain is a highly complex organ and even though we are consciously aware of some of its activities, most of them we are not aware of. So even if we claim we thought of something voluntarily in the current moment, it only means that we are not aware of what state most of our brain was in in the previous moment and what stimuli might have acted on it to give rise to that thought. The cause of every thought can only be evident if we had the ability to know the state of the entire brain in the previous moment and all the activities going on within it due to various internal and external stimuli that change the state of the brain. The current state of the brain is only a function of a deterministic chain of cause and effect spanning over countless moments and it is our lack of awareness of the brain in totality that gives rise to this apparent feeling of “free will”. So if someone has to decide whether to do something or not at any given time, know for sure that the choice will be determined by whatever state the brain is in at that time as a result of all the past activities, and what information related to that thing is active in the brain at that time. No matter how much thinking takes place, the eventual decision will only be an effect of a series of state changes in the brain, most of which the person will not be aware of. And if the person makes a different decision at a different time about doing the same thing or not, that will only be because either the state of the brain is different and/or the information is different at that time. In either case, no claims of free will can be made.

One might argue that this could lead to people not being accountable for any wrongful actions they do. But that cannot happen due to an inherent contradiction. Wrongful actions are based on selfishness, and selfish people are not capable of embracing the truth about not having a free will, because the idea of free will is based on self-importance that is rooted in egotism. And if someone is able to embrace this truth genuinely, they have already reached a certain level of unselfishness and it is highly unlikely for them to engage in wrongful actions.

So does this mean we should not try to do anything deliberately? You might be able to guess what will determine the eventual answer to this question for each person (hint: it is not free will), but a sensible approach would be to continue to do whatever you have been doing combined with this underlying understanding about the absence of free will. Some replace it with the divine will, others call it the unfolding of the universe, or just nature doing its thing, but irrespective of how you label it, being free of the notion of free will is actually quite freeing!