Are You a Mere Marionette, or a Victim of Your Biological Urges?

Chapter 8.3: No one can choose for you.

Why this book | Title Page | Table of Contents
Preface | Introduction
PART 1
Chapter 1 (1.1) (1.2) | Chapter 2 (2.1) (2.2) (2.3) | Chapter 3 (3.1) (3.2) (3.3) (3.4) (3.5) (3.6)
PART 2
Chapter 4 (4.1) (4.2) (4.3) (4.4) (4.5) | Chapter 5 (5.1) (5.2) (5.3) (5.4) (5.5) (5.6) (5.7) (5.8) (5.9)
Chapter 6 (6.1) (6.2) (6.3) (6.4) (6.5)
PART 3
Chapter 7 (7.1) (7.2) (7.3) (7.4) (7.5) (7.6)
Chapter 8 (8.1) (8.2) (8.3)
Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14
PART 4
Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 |
PART 5
Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Conclusion
Appendix | Works Cited

---

Note: This is an installment of The Freedom Scale: An Accurate Measure of Left and Right. See here for installments of The Distributed Nation: A Plan for Human Independence.

This installment is free for all subscribers. To read the rest of this book, upgrade your subscription here:

---

8.3 — What Makes Us Us?

• Free Will

  • Objections

    • What about God’s plan?

    • What if what seems like choice is actually just stimulus response?

---

Objections

The term “free will” has become freighted with controversy over the centuries. From the writings of academics and theologians to the mind-bending metaphysical explorations of sophomores in candlelit dorms, the debate has raged.

How do we reconcile our free will with concepts such as predestination or a divine plan? How do we square our freedom of choice with that sneaking feeling that some things are just fated to be? What if what feels like freedom of choice is really just a series of automated responses to pleasure and punishment stimuli, or a deterministic interplay of biological and environmental programming?

We respect and honor this debate, but most of it goes beyond what we are trying to accomplish here. Ours is a much simpler assertion, but one that constitutes an inescapable fact of reality:

Barring an injury or condition that robs us of our basic cognitive abilities, each of us makes hundreds of choices every day. As far as any of us can tell, we are choosing. In the absence of being bewitched or hypnotized in some way, no one can choose for us.¹ We have and exercise independent volition, and though external forces can influence our choices or coercively limit our range of options, only the individual can actually choose for him or herself.

To explore just how much of a fundamental fact this is, try to imagine yourself not choosing. I don’t mean imagining external circumstances that limit your options or external coercion that seeks to push you towards a particular choice. I mean try to imagine yourself without free will. Try to imagine going about the business of your day, your life, without making choices.

It’s simply not possible. If you are alive, you are choosing. If you are choosing, you are alive.

You can choose to work or play. You can choose to forgive or not. You can send signals down your spine to move your arm, your hand, your fingers in myriad different ways. You can play Chopin or “Chopsticks.”² You can write a poem or draw something that no one has ever drawn before. You can make a salad or a sundae. Opto ergo sum.

Nonetheless, out of respect, and to be as clear as we can, we must briefly address a few standard objections.

What about God’s plan?

The question of reconciling free will with the notion of a divine plan has been with us at least since the advent of philosophy and religion, and probably long before that. As far as we can tell, each of us is making choices, every waking moment. But how can that be, if God has a plan for each of us, and for the whole world? Any plan from an omnibenevolent supreme being would likely be supremely good, and yet here we are, capable of making choices that can royally mess things up. How can these things be compatible? This question has produced volumes of writing, numerous schools of thought, and passionate debate.

Among the most compelling answers is the assertion that in spite of the problems associated with God giving us the freedom to choose, the one thing that is worse would be not allowing us to choose at all. Author and Christian theologian C.S. Lewis takes this view, explaining why even the most devout among us—indeed, especially the most devout among us—should fervently believe in, and be grateful for, our freedom to choose: