An Analysis of the Concept of Free Will

What is free will? After all, free will seems so distant and often taken for granted. Every day in our lives, we make choices. Whether it's choosing to turn left or right, we are making decisions every minute of our lives.

But what is free will exactly? The general idea of free will is that we are able to choose what we want. In a sense, free will contradicts the old belief that there is no preexisting force determining every aspect of our lives. Determinism held that there was a higher being, perhaps God, who determined everything in advance and is not bound by time.

This concept of having a predetermined future was shattered by the discovery of quantum physics. We cannot possibly know the location and velocity of an electron simultaneously. Instead, we can only perceive it as either a particle or wave, but not both. This particular discovery goes against the concept of determinism because there is finally something that we cannot predict. Despite all of the discoveries science has uncovered, it seems physically and logistically impossible for science to figure out the mystery of electrons. This mind-blowing problem has questioned the idea of determinism and gives more support for the existence of free will.

Though this uncertainty gives us more reason to believe in the existence of free will, we must consider another perspective. We can redefine free will as acting almost without any inhibitions and simply by impulses. However, that cannot be feasible. For example, people do not act arbitrarily. There is always a reason for why people act the way they do. A person chooses not to eat something for a reason, whether the food tastes bad or their stomach hurts. Regardless of the reason, there is always a reason. This gives strong support for determinism because a person's actions can be predicted through an intricate explanation or set of rules.

A person's actions can always be explained, no matter how complicated or complex a person's thoughts and rationale are, it still exists. People simply do not act arbitrarily, which upon closer inspection, truly does disprove the concept of free will. How can people have free will if their actions can be predicted? After all, we just might not completely understand the human mind yet. Perhaps one day we will uncover the mystery to why people act certain ways and completely debunk the myth of free will just as we will better understand the properties of electrons.