Psychology of Free Will! – Is there a free will?

“Shower on him every blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, give him economic prosperity such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes, and busy himself with the continuation of the species, and even then, out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick.”

-Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Will/wɪl/noun: the faculty by which a person decides on and initiates action.

Having free will means you have a choice, on what you think and how you choose to react. Something as simple as choosing a pen or as complex as what career to choose can feel as if the individual has the power to choose among the options.

Determinism, as opposed to free will, is a philosophical theory that states that all events, including human action are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will. Meaning- all of our choices, thoughts and actions are determined by forces such as our biology, our upbringing, past experiences, conditioning, etc. that we may consider outside of our conscious selves.

For example, choosing a pen although might look as if a simple decision, might have been influenced by a brand of pen you’d seen with a friend, or a pen your uncle used to carry, or an advertisement you might not even consciously remember; choosing a career might be influenced by your personality, the zeitgeist (spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time), your physiology (for example, in sports), a movie you saw as a kid, etc.

Robert Sapolsky, a biologist and neuroscientist at Stanford University is one of the many scientists who believes that there is no free will. His book “Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will” confronts and refutes the biological and philosophical arguments for free will. From a biological perspective, all our behavior, thoughts and emotions are explained by and some would even say caused by our biology, our hormones, genes, neurotransmitters, etc. “Everything psychological is biological”.

In the context of Nepal, we can see a type of determinism existing and having a cultural grab. Fatalism (the belief that all events are dependent on fate) where we attribute our circumstances as “lekhera lerako”, or “karma ko fal”, or “daiba le deko”, etc. Dor Bahadur Bista, the father of Nepali Anthropology in his book “Fatalism and Development: Nepal’s Struggle for Modernization” observed that the tendency in Nepalese society is to have absolute belief, due to which a person’s attitude is dependent on and influenced by the power of a divine. He argued that fatalism has caused retardation of development since people do not exert will to develop themselves or the society but rather be dependent on fate or God.

From a psychological perspective, though there are individual differences, in general, if an individual believes there is no free will, it consoles them against their situation, circumstances and even responsibility. It allows them to attribute the causal factors to their biology, or upbringing, or fate, or God where they do not carry the burden of guilt, regret or the burden of nihilism (the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless). Whereas, if they do believe they have a free will, they might carry the guilt for things they did, even things they did not have control of but are blaming themselves.

But if they believe there is no free will, the individual has the tendency to not take charge for their own life or decisions and may not try to improve their situation; whereas if they do believe there is free will, they might act responsibly by deeming themselves responsible for their own lives and in turn become the best person they can.

The debate of free will in not new in the field of psychology. The Humanistic movement in psychology was considered revolutionary also because it broke away from the deterministic philosophies of psychodynamic and behavioral perspectives. One attributed the causal factors of behavior towards the individual’s upbringing, their past history and trauma while the other attributed it towards the individual’s conditioning. Humanistic psychology introduced the existential philosophy into psychology, a philosophy that humans, to a varying degree, have free will, are able to make decisions, and can be held responsible for their actions.

The quote by Dostoevsky at the beginning of this article is partly about man’s need for struggle and an innate need to attempt to overcome that struggle through the exercise of free will. Man is not simply satisfied with determinism, where he does not feel in control of his circumstances. It, in time becomes unbearable for him to simply be a pawn in the chess game, and his torment may exit through all forms of distorted ways.

Thus, it’s perhaps less important to argue if there is or is not a free will, but to learn to examine if it does in every situation, and in the meantime act as if it exists, and maybe even believe that it does. There perhaps is a varying degree of free will in every situation and it is up to the individual to examine, exercise and accept the degree to which they had a choice and the degree to which it was driven by forces outside of them. The task of examining and determining can be difficult and perilous, but is a must to be a psychologically healthy individual.

To conclude, even if Sapolsky may argue that there is no free will, as an individual, perhaps it is important to examine the degree of free will we may have and then make conscious decisions. For that, even though there are insurmountable and unknowable forces that may make us to choose and determine our choices for us, it is important to act as if it exist and at least carry the illusion of free will, to be a responsible individual who does the best they can. Because those who act as if they have free will are usually the ones that do.