Free Will summary

Here’s a scenario: You realize that you’re thirsty, so you decide to grab a glass of lemonade.

Where did this decision come from?

Many people would say you chose to drink a glass of lemonade out of your own free will. Free will happens when you make a decision – that is, make up your own mind – without being forced or coerced.

So if you want lemonade, and no one's threatening to kill you if you don't, you're exercising free will.

But really, you didn’t decide to get that glass of lemonade – at least not consciously. Perhaps you felt thirsty, but that's a biological function that you can’t directly control.

And why lemonade, exactly? And why now?

Such decisions don't originate from our conscious minds. We don't know what we intend to do until we actually do it.

Researcher Benjamin Libet in his experiments found that he could detect activity in parts of peoples' brains that signaled movement before they decided to move. While participants thought they controlled their own movements, their brains had already decided to move their bodies before they were even aware of it.

This means the underlying reasons behind our actions or decisions are hidden from us. The only way we could fully control our decisions would be if we had complete control over all our brain activity.

The feeling that we control our thoughts and behaviors is an illusion. Our thoughts are inspired by deep biological processes that we simply can’t control, like our genetic makeup.

Think of it this way. Do you control the millions of bacteria in your body? Not at all. So why, then, should we think we are responsible for an equally random set of processes that occur in our brains?