By Dr. Gary L. Deel, Ph.D., J.D.
Faculty Member, Wallace E. Boston School of Business, American Public University
The University offers an online bachelor of arts in psychology and an online master of arts in psychology. These programs educate students on concepts related to consciousness and free will.
In previous articles, I’ve discussed arguments from noteworthy thinkers such as Sam Harris that what we seem to experience as “free will” is really just an illusion. I’ve also written about how it’s possible that the idea of free will might still be rescued by future research and study into the mechanics of consciousness. But in the absence of a major scientific epiphany, the argument against free will seems compelling.
Cause and Effect versus Free Will
The main claim from Harris and others is that because our universe is governed by simple laws of determinism, there is simply no room for the imposition of free will.
In other words, everything that happens in our universe — from the atomic level right on up to the collisions of supermassive black holes — is governed by simple cause and effect. With this way of thinking, everything going on between our ears — the interaction between atoms and molecules to create what we experience as thought — is also a product of basic cause and effect.
If this reasoning is true, then our thoughts, reasoning, deliberations and other conscious (i.e., intentional) subroutines of the brain are not really within our control at all; they are not subject to any kind of will. Instead, they are the product of extremely complex chains of causation with myriad components that include genetics, life experiences, disease prevalence, diets, blood-nutrient levels, and many other factors.
In this sense, we might think of our brains as the biggest and most complicated domino sets that we can imagine, with a nearly infinite assortment of different strings of dominoes being triggered by different catalyzing events. But at the end of the day, dominoes are purely deterministic. Once the cascade begins in any particular direction, the rest of the dominoes in the sequence are guaranteed to fall. Although we can observe the consequences of these catalyzing events, we cannot stop them or change them.
In the context of our brains, the domino cascade began at the moment we were conceived. With each new factor that influenced our development, new branches of dominoes emerged, shifted and changed shape.
For example, imagine that we experience a subtle, in-utero genetic mutation that results in a behavioral inclination. Suppose that as a child, we have a new experience with love or hate, or we eat something that alters our brain chemistry. Suppose we develop a brain tumor through simple bad luck. Each of these events would change our present state and the final outcomes of the chains of events we experience.
However, there is nowhere for us to step in and intervene in these chains. We can watch the cascade of events play out over time, but we can’t alter them because they are a mere reflection of basic cause and effect.
Among those like Harris who argue that free will is an illusion, our thoughts and choices are believed to work the same way. We have no more control over the next thing we think or do than we have over the chain reaction of events that occurs once the domino cascade begins.
Determinism
Although the experience of consciousness may lead us to feel as if we author our own thoughts and choices, the fact is our understanding of determinism clashes with the idea that we could put our thumb on the proverbial scale at any place in the causal chain and change the end results. This very notion is actually at odds with the basic laws of the physical universe as we know them.
But here is the question I want to attempt to answer with this article: If free will is in fact an illusion, what then would be the point in caring about anything? In other words, what would prevent you from spiraling into a nihilistic abyss where you cease to care at all about the quality of the thoughts you think or the choices you choose?
After all, you don’t really have any control over events anyway, right? So what difference does it make? In the second part of this article, I’ll examine the answer to these questions.
About the Author
Dr. Gary Deel is an Associate Professor with the Wallace E. Boston School of Business. He holds a J.D. in Law and a Ph.D. in Hospitality/Business Management. Gary teaches human resources and employment law classes for American Public University and American Military University, the University of Central Florida, Colorado State University and others.
