Do we really possess free will? I mean, are our choices genuinely free and independent,
or are they influenced by factors beyond our control? What I mean is, do we control our behavior,
or is there some predetermined event that occurs that controls us? And I'm not talking necessarily
religious. This question basically sparks a monumental philosophical debate divided between
those who believe in absolute free will, and those who see it basically as an illusion. Yet,
there are nuanced views in between the two ideologies, with some arguing that free will can
coexist with determinism, while others just completely firmly disagree. And this is a topic
that invites us to challenge our deepest assumptions about free will or determinism.
Welcome to today's episode of Unscripted Life, the podcast that confronts you with the unsettling
truth life doesn't follow a script, and much of what we've been taught is an illusion. I'm your
host Alan Stafford. Join me as we dive into the compelling notion that free will might just be a myth.
Thank you for joining me again, and if this is your first time, thank you for joining me to
begin with free will. I mean, that's we're not talking free willy the movie, we're talking free
will our ability to make choices autonomously from any other predetermined idea. So free will is
basically the ability for us humans to make choices independently of external coercion or, as I said,
predetermination essential to discussions on morality, ethics, and responsibility. So basically,
free will is the idea that we have control of our own morality of our own ethics and of our own
responsibility. I mean, and this goes back all the way back to the Enlightenment, the 18th century,
you had philosophers, basis, basically political philosophers, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, who argued
that free will is central to understanding human rights in the nature of governance. So this goes
back this this thinking of free will goes all the way back to the 18th century, like I said,
during the Enlightenment, which was basically a European transformation, it was a reprogramming,
so to speak, of politics, philosophy, science, and communication during that time period. And part
of that was to determine or to discuss, does man actually create his own behaviors as he
govern himself? And these philosophers, John Locke and Thomas Hobbes both argued that yes,
basically, I mean, John Locke's quote is men are to be judged by their actions, not their thoughts.
So in essence, it's not our thinking that controls us, it's our actions that control us. I mean,
that's pretty heavy. Have you ever thought about, have you ever really thought about free will? I
mean, you automatically get up, do things throughout your day, and you're not thinking about how you're
doing them, you're just thinking that you need to do them, but you're not really realizing that there
might be something predetermined neurologically in your mind that causes you to behave in a
certain way beyond your conscious control. And these challenges to free will, the illusion of
free will are basically rooted in neuroscientific findings and deterministic perspectives, basically
suggesting that our decisions are not as autonomous as we believe. I mean, there have been
neuroscientific studies such as those by the neuroscientist Benjamin Liebet, who have shown
brain activity related to decisions occur before we are consciously aware of choosing those
decisions. That's pretty fascinating. So basically what it's saying, what Liebet is arguing is that
there is scientific evidence to prove that there is neurotransmitter, or neural activity going on
our brains that are making decisions for us before we are consciously aware of these decisions. So if
free will is an illusion, think about the implications that it has on our society and on
everyday life for us in America, at least, because free will underpins our legal system. It affects
social interactions, it highlights its importance in fostering personal responsibility in moral
integrity. So imagine for a moment, if neuroscience is correct, our behavior is predetermined
through neurological activity before our conscious actually registers it and behaves on it. How does
that change our society? And I know what you're probably thinking, oh, no, we have free will,
because I know I make decisions for myself. This is not what I'm talking about, because what I'm
saying is neuroscience proves that some behavior is caused by neural activity before the conscious
mind knows that it's doing it. So we've already seen proof for the neuroscientific part of that.
The question comes into play if we adopt a deterministic view on humanity and say that
free will does not truly exist, what implication does that have for our society? Our legal system
is in jeopardy because our legal system is completely based on the notion that man has free
will, because we punish based on man's crimes, right? Man does, man makes a choice. And I'm using
the word man in terms of human, not man is in terms of male here. I'm using it in the archaic
term, meaning humans. We as humans, if we make a certain choice, we are punished for that choice.
There's a consequence for that. And that's our legal system is based on that free will choice.
But if free will is a myth, if it's an illusion, then who do we or how do we base our behavior on?
Even our morality, is our morality predetermined? Are we designed to have a specific set of morals?
And yet we don't know that. And we react to that deterministic view inside of our
neurological makeup? I mean, I don't know. But I think it's interesting. I mean, entertain the
thought for a moment that, you know, our judicial system, like I said, operates on the principles
that individuals are held accountable for their actions. Imagine for a moment that we're not.
I mean, can you what kind of we would have to have, we would have to set up a society where we have
consequences based on a predetermined action that we do subconsciously in our conscious.
And if that's too heavy for you, it's even heavy for me. It's it, you got to get your mind wrapped
about around that. And we can't, it's hard for us humans to wrap our minds around things we can't
see and understand. So we make up all these stories, you know, to justify things that we
don't understand, like religion, political ideology, and a whole host of other fictional
realities that we engage in. But I just think that's real fascinating, though. I think it's
interesting to argue the fact that free will is a myth. The net basically unravels everything we
know as humans in our society, everything we've created, that is really subjective. It's not
even objective. You know, the legal system is not an objective thing. It's purely subjective. So
as morality is purely subjective. Well, maybe because it's subjective, it's really not really
free will anyway. Hmm. Didn't think about that, right? I mean, and free will is viewed very differently
across philosophical and cultural perspectives. I mean, you have the idea of the Christian doctrine
of predestination, but yet God has given man free will. So it's kind of almost an oxymoron. We
we have predeterminate, we have a predestination, we have determinism built into religion, yet man
has free will. So that counteracts that contradicts itself right there. And then the concept of karma
and Buddhism, where your actions follow you throughout your life and into the next life,
as well. And you have to do certain things in order to basically repent or to cleanse yourself
of that bad karma. I mean, Stoics, even even even philosophically Stoics, Stoicism, Epicureanism,
if I said that correctly, they believe that basically moral fate is predetermined. It's
quite opposite of religion. And that's why, and that's probably why religion and philosophy are
always at odds with one another, because they're both opposite of one another. So if we take free
will away from man, and believe in determinism, where neurologically, our brains decide for us
subconsciously, what our conscious mind will do, that basically unravels everything we've ever
learned, whether you're a Christian or a Muslim or Jew or a Buddhist, you know, or a Sikh, or a
pagan, whatever, it basically says human beings are not responsible for their actions and their
morality, that that will mess up and unravel our legal system and everything. So it's easier to sit
there and play along with the illusion that we have free will, than it is to go against it,
even though there are scientific evidence demonstrating determinism exists neurologically.
We're going to talk about maybe combining both of those ideologies together in a bit though.
So hang on to your hats there. I don't want you to think it's going to be one or the other.
But you can certainly pick a side because there's no right or wrong. It's just what is your
philosophical perspective on this. And I'm not going to tell you mine just yet. Okay. And there's
even more proof that challenges the idea of free will. I mean, the unconscious mind can control
behavior and is capable of executing complex decisions without the need for conscious input.
That's neurology. That's neuroscience. That's studies. I mean, a significant amount of our
decision making occurs subconsciously and it's influenced by, well, stimuli emotions and biases
that are not in our conscious awareness, folks. And there's psychological studies on the priming
effect since the 1980s that show how exposure to certain stimuli and some of its subliminal stimuli
that can subconsciously influence behaviors and our decisions and our decisions basically
suggesting our choices are not entirely free or deliberate. So we have neuroscience backing us
up and challenging free will. Again, this isn't conclusive to everything we do, but it is a big
part of who we are as humans, challenging the notion that free will exists, that we act on our
own agency. I mean, and there's even more neuroscientific evidence of predetermined decisions.
There are neuroscientific studies, including those on readiness potential that suggests our brain
activity related to decision occurs before our conscious awareness, basically challenging
the notion of free will. We make decisions before we're consciously aware of it. And I keep beating
that down because that's a big part of determinism that our subconscious makes those decisions
before our consciousness is aware of it. And yet we're not even aware of that. And this is why
we have this illusion of free will because we can't comprehend what we're not seeing or feeling
internally. So we say to ourselves, we are making this choice when in fact, the subconscious is
making a decision before our conscious mind is making that decision for us. So you're not really
in control of your own decision. And this is scientific proof, folks. This is neuroscientific
studies. Like I said, since the 1980s on the priming effect, where certain stimuli influence
our behaviors and our decisions. And a lot of the study comes from Benjamin Liebet's experiments
back in the 1980s. Basically, his experiments revealed that the readiness potential in the brain,
which is a marker of neural activity, precedes the conscious decisions to act. Basically,
it's implying that decisions are initiated by unconscious neural processes. So again, studies
done by neuroscientists like Liebet and other neuroscientists for the last probably 40, 50 years
are demonstrating that we're making decisions before our conscious mind knows it, supporting
determinism, and debunking the idea of free will. But again, the question I ask, is it one or the other,
or can there be a combination of both? I mean, that's a good question, right? And I don't know.
And you can't, and you can't sit there and say conclusively that I have free will and that's it,
because you don't know yourself. And I don't know myself. And neuroscientists who do the studies
only know certain parts of it. And think about this year for a second, the belief in free will
basically deeply influences our emotional responses, such as guilt, pride, and the
essence of achievement. Can you imagine if we robbed ourselves of free will, what would be our
motivation to achieve? If we said, Hey, free will doesn't exist. And your efforts to become successful
are pretty much predicated on some deterministic value or neurological process in your mind.
What are you going to think? Well, forget it, I'm not even going to try that. I'll just let my
brain subconsciously put it into my head and my consciousness will take over. Can you imagine
that we'd have like a world of lazy people, I think, I think it works symbiotically, I think
they work together in tandem, this is just my own personal theory. But then again, it's limited by
my own thinking, right? And my own thinking is biased and flawed, because I really don't know
all the ins and outs of what's going on inside my brain. But can you imagine, there'd be no more
feelings of guilt, why would you feel guilty? I mean, well, I guess you would have there,
okay, so I take that back, there still would be feelings of guilt, because subconsciously,
neurologically, you would be feeling guilty. And you would think that you're feeling guilty.
Maybe this explains why some people get depressed, and they don't know why they get depressed, or
why they feel guilty, or why they feel embarrassed when they shouldn't feel embarrassed. Maybe their
subconscious is actually triggering that, and then it's spilling over into their consciousness,
and then they're feeling the embarrassment or guilt. And then they realize, why, why am I feeling
this? I mean, that's a possibility. I wouldn't discount that at all. Heck, you can go with that.
You can say next time you feel guilty about something, and you really don't want to feel
guilty, you can simply blame it on a neurological process, determinism, basically, it's happening
before you even know it, and you can say, Hey, look, you know what, I'm feeling guilty, but I
really shouldn't feel guilty, because I shouldn't feel guilty about what I just did. So it's really
something that's occurring in my subconscious. So let's just go ahead and scratch that I don't
feel guilty, move on. I mean, I guess you could use that as an excuse and cite neurological studies,
you know, on determinism. So I mean, like psychological research basically suggests that
feelings of guilt and pride assume control over our own actions. And this undermining this,
or undermining free will, would basically lessen these emotional responses, as I said,
basically impacting personal personal motivation and our self esteem. I wonder how that would
affect us think about that, how would that affect your self esteem if you realized that you don't
have the free will to be motivated, that motivation is determined in the subconscious, how does that
impact you consciously. So if you want to go to the gym, and you decide, Oh, well, I'm just not
going to go to the gym, because my subconscious will take that over. And if I want to go, it will
decide that I should go for myself. Maybe that's a lot of maybe that's a reason a lot of people use
laziness or don't want to do something, because they just go, Oh, my subconscious is telling me
not to do this. That might make sense. I mean, and aside from our own personal feelings, and the
legal system, as we've discussed, you know, you got cultural perceptions of fate. So folks on the
flip side, if we're taking a look at free will and defending free will, people often argue,
experts, philosophers argue that determinism, which let me let me pause right here and say that
determinism, if you don't know, basically means that things are predetermined, okay,
that your behaviors are predetermined. And so determinists will argue that neurological
stimuli basically predetermine your behavior in your subconscious, before your conscious fully
engages in that behavior. But determinism is often criticized for basically oversimplifying
oversimplifying human decision making. And it doesn't take into account the unpredictable
and varied nature of human responses. So if we take that apart for a second and think,
let's imagine for a moment that free will does not exist. And we're really just everything is
deterministic, everything occurs subconsciously in the mind, before your conscious reacts. What
the argument against determinism is saying that if you're presented with a problem, a situation,
that you need to make a decision, the subconscious mind will make that decision, that's a deterministic
view before the conscious mind does. What supporters of free will come back and say is that let's say
the mind makes that decision before the conscious does, but now you have to make adjustments to
that quickly. And they're arguing that it's oversimplified that determinism is oversimplified
in that those complex decisions that follow that one decision are what free will is about,
if that makes any sense to you at all. So basically, they're saying, let's entertain
the thought that your subconscious mind makes a choice before your conscious mind does. But
there's an outside element that is impacted by your decision, your subconscious decision,
it creates an unpredictable environment. Now you have to make a counter decision
to correct that unpredictability. So what happens is that determinism? No, they say that's free
will because you're making that on the fly, because your mind cannot calculate that. Are
they're arguing that the mind doesn't calculate that beforehand, which maybe it does. I don't know.
I mean, I'm not a neurologist. But anyway, that is what the supporters of free will say,
that determinism is oversimplified, and it doesn't take into account the unpredictable nature of
human behavior. I mean, and they have proof for that as well. So you have the determinists that
have proof neurologically that decisions are made subconsciously before the conscious mind knows it,
and you have those that support free will saying that, well, we have proof too. And basically,
the supporting data is that quantum mechanics, there in quantum mechanics, there are several
events that occur without deterministic causes, because in science, there's always a cause and
effect. But in quantum mechanics, you have some of these events that occur without any predetermined
cause without anything occurring before the actual event. And basically, this challenges
those strict deterministic views in that in quantum mechanics, you can have something occur without a
cause and effect, a predetermined cause. So I don't know where your mindset is right now,
or you lean in towards, I believe in free will, or you lean in towards a deep more deterministic
viewpoint that our subconscious basically makes a decision before our conscious reacts. And if I
was a betting man, I would bet that you're probably leaning towards free will. And here's why I say
that because free will is easy to understand. It's you doing what you do. Determinism requires
a heavier thought process. It requires you to suspend your belief in what you physically see
occurring, meaning the action that you're taking and the thoughts that you're having to take that
action, and assume that there's something underlying that subconscious that conscious thought
that's in the subconscious, that's causing you to do that conscious action. So it's easier to
go towards free will. This is probably why everything is predicated on free will, you
know, our judicial system, our morality, our ethics, our, you know, our personal feelings.
It's all based on free will. We are free to choose how we feel and how we act and therefore
there's consequences to those actions, rather than looking at it and saying, well, there's a
possibility that there's a deterministic way that we act and that's in the subconscious. So either
way you look at it, you're going to have opposing views. But there's a third way to look at this
here. And it's the compatabulous perspective. I'm talking about compatabilism between free will
and determinism. So basically, compatabilists will argue that free will can exist alongside
determinism. So it's a good way of looking at, you know, I'm in the middle of the road and we
can have both. So a compatabilist suggests that freedom involves acting according to your own
motivation and your own desires. And both of these can be meaningful, even if they are determined,
what they're to say, what they're basically what a compatabilist says is that free will can exist
and we can it can be they say free will can exist, and it can be meaningful, even if there is
determinism, even if things are predetermined. So an argument for compatabilism. So taking a look
at Daniel Dennett's argument, he's a philosopher, compatabilist, basically arguing that the ability
to reflect an act according to a person's reason, desires provides a practical form of free will,
basically aligning freedom with self aware decision making rather than your spontaneity.
So what Dennett is arguing is that our ability to reflect and to act to our own reasoned desires
provides a practical form of free will and it aligns for that freedom with our self awareness,
our decision making, rather than pure spontaneity. So what he's basically saying is that we can have
free will, we can have determinism, it can be meaningful, and it doesn't have to be spontaneous.
So in the end, our nature is really not a constraint on our freedom, but it's the very basis
for our capacity to imagine and to shape our destinies. And this is what Daniel Dennett is
ultimately saying in compatabilism between bringing self awareness and determinism together,
that we can coexist, find meaning and still have free will and have things still predetermined.
But what about the role of consciousness and self awareness in making our choices?
How does that play into making our choices? Well, both of them, both consciousness and self
awareness are crucial in order for us to have genuine free will. We need consciousness and
that self awareness to have free will because it provides the capacity for self reflection.
In order for us to be self reflecting, we need to have that free will. It also provides for us
provides planning and our voluntary decision making. I mean, there's research and cognitive
psychology that suggests consciousness, conscious thought processes enable us to consider future
consequences. It also enables us to weigh alternative choices and align actions with our
personal values and our long term goals. So basically, free will helps us stay motivated.
It helps us align our personal values, what we value now with our long term goals, what we want
to achieve in the future. So there's an argument for free will. And then there's an argument for
determinism. And then there's an argument for compatible, compatabilism. It's kind of a tough
word to say, but the needless to say, wherever you fall on the spectrum between free will
and determinism, I believe that they go in hand in hand, they coexist together. Because
if we're looking at it this way, self awareness and consciousness itself requires free will,
unless we can prove through neural neuroscience that it's predetermined. And we haven't done that
yet. But yet there are things that occur within human behavior in the subconscious that the
conscious is not yet aware of, but the conscious acts upon it when the subconscious takes and
processes that information that stimuli. So I think in the end, if you take a look at it,
there is a symbiotic relationship between free will and determinism. And that is called
compatabilism. So I'm always going to take the middle of the road. I don't have the answer
as far as one or the other is concerned, I just know that both can coexist and both do exist.
And from the based on the evidence and based on science itself. But the takeaway is despite the
challenges, you know, a nuanced understanding of free will, and it's supported by both philosophical
reasoning and scientific insights affirms that free will exists and that it is important in the
role in human behavior. And this is subject to ongoing debates and research, you know, to continue
to refine our understanding of free will, you know, emphasizing its role in moral responsibility
and personal identity. So don't expect the judicial, don't expect the judicial system to fall
because we don't have free will, that's not going to happen. So you can't sit there and
commit a crime and say, Well, I was not in control. So therefore, I shouldn't commit be punished for
this. It was some sort of subconscious, you know, effort or process that caused me to do this action.
Therefore, I should not be punished for it. That's not going to happen, folks.
So bringing it all together aligning, you know, the fallacy or the myth or the
illusion of free will with an unscripted life, a life where there's really no scripts written for
how you should behave and who you should be, you know, how do we align that? Well, basically recognizing
the limitations for the illusion of free will enhances, it enhances the theme of embracing
life's unpredictability, because life is unpredictable, we cannot control what we cannot
control. And that's about everything. Even our thoughts sometimes we can't control even our
behavior as we've learned that maybe free will is a myth that determinism truly does exist because
neuroscience has proven it that maybe we're not really in control, but it is possible
to lead a fulfilling life by focusing on what we can control, focusing on those aspects such as our
responses and our attitudes without relying on a notion of absolute free will. So we know we can
control aspects of our life, and we don't have to worry too much about the idea of free will,
we just have to worry about being able to control those aspects that we can control. And we can
accept life's inherent uncertainty because it enhances emotional and psychological resilience.
I mean, psychology, psychological studies suggest that embracing uncertainty basically reduces
anxiety over the future and builds resilience. And that is crucial for adapting to life's changes.
So the fact that we can actually inherit or accept life's uncertainty enhances our ability
to adapt our resiliency towards life itself. And that's a lot to digest, folks. I mean, I get it.
Depending, regardless of where you are on the spectrum here, whether you free will 100% believe
in free will, you somewhat believe in free will, you believe in determinism, or you believe in a
kind of a mixture of both. And I think if we did a poll, the majority of people would probably find,
well, I shouldn't say the majority of the people, I think a lot of people will automatically go to
free will because they can see it and observe it without having to do any deep thinking about
the subconscious and what goes on or knowing about neuroscience and or or good slice of the
population would subscribe to the in the midpoint, the compatibilist ideology and that we can
find meaningful life within free will and determinism together. But wherever you stand on this issue,
think about how it has an impact on your life moving forward, how free will impacts your life
and your decisions and your choices, how determinism might impact your life and your choices moving
forward and live your life embracing the unknown, embracing uncertainty in order to help yourself
build that resiliency towards life, be able to adapt quicker than other people, for example,
who are more rigid in their thinking. So you know, wrapping this up here, the whole the whole
exploration of free will and determinism basically invites us to reflect on the deep and often
unnoticed ways in which the concept of free will or its absence permeates every aspect of our life.
How does it shape our actions as I've asked our relationships and our societal structures?
What does it mean for personal accountability and ethical behavior? Some things to think about,
some things to think about moving forward, you know, I want to encourage each of you to think
about where you stand in this debate. How does the notion of free will or its limitations
impact your daily life and your decisions? Are there particular strategies you found effective
in embracing the unpredictability of life at all? And at any point, you know, that'd be interesting
to know. Hey, and if you've, if you found today's episode thought provoking, I'd encourage you to
subscribe to Life Unscripted, my podcast on your favorite podcast platform, because my goal
is to continue bringing you content that challenges, educates, and inspires you. So join me next time
as I unravel another complex theme about life consciousness and the human condition. I want
to thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for tuning in. And remember, in a world that often
feels stripped of embracing the unexpected can be your greatest strength.