Q&A: A Question About Free Will
A Question About Free Will
Question
A lot of people who go through different traumas end up, as a result, falling into depression and other problems. And any beginning psychologist will say that it isn’t their fault, etc. So where exactly is free choice here? How can one say there is free will if a person can go through severe trauma (say, someone’s house burns down and all his money and possessions are destroyed, or someone loses a child, or someone goes through something violent, and so on) and as a result fall into depression? I don’t know whether depression is defined as a “transgression,” but there is something here spiritual (at least in my opinion, without judging or saying anything bad). From a happy and good state, a person falls into depression and can remain in it for many years or even for life.
Answer
A person also can’t fly, or go without sleep for two years. So where is free will there?
Free will does not mean that everything is in our hands and that we operate in a vacuum. There are constraints of various kinds and varying intensities, and choice is made within them. The debate between determinists and libertarians (those who believe in free will) is over whether the constraints dictate everything or only try to tip the scales. In other words: do they influence our behavior (the libertarian view) or determine it (the determinist view)?
Note that even according to the libertarian, the constraints are divided into two types: 1. Constraints that influence but do not determine. 2. Constraints that determine (beyond the window of choice).
See all this in my articles here and here.
Free will is a fiction. Like ghosts that appear where you can’t see them.