Free Will Essay

In his book Free Will, Sam Harris not only states that, “Our wills are simply not of our own making” but additionally if it where declared as fact by the scientific community it “would precipitate a culture war far more belligerent than the one that has been waged on the subject of evolution.” (Ch.1) Harris’ contention is surprising as he himself states, “…most people find these conclusions abhorrent” (Ch.1) but does it really matter whether we actually have free will or not? I maintain that the existence of actual free will is superfluous. Most of us agree that we, at the very least, experience an illusion of freedom and therefore, for the good of our civilization, we must continue to live under this assumption precisely to avoid the result Harris describes.

Harris’ ideas about free will are of course not necessarily novel. James L. Christian in Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering writes in the chapter on freedom about several philosophers with similar ideas, including B. F. Skinner. Christian writes that the idea of freedom is of course an important one, “…does the experience of freedom, in fact, exist? Or does the feeling of freedom mask an illusion?” (257) Harris delineates what he understands to be the two common assumptions about free will under which most people operate: “(1) that each of us could have behaved differently than we did in the past, and (2) that we are the conscious source of most of our thoughts and actions in the present.” (Ch.1) This, at the most basic level, is what most people assume they posses; an ability to consciously make a choice and that choice having an observable and measurable effect on the universe (libertarianism). I agree with Harris that this is what most people ascribe to fo...

... middle of paper ...

... we traditionally understand it is an illusion. But despite this, I maintain that whether this is true or not is completely irrelevant to our daily lives. Our experience of free will is undeniable whether it is an illusion or not, and to retract this and embrace some kind of determinism would shake civilization to it’s very core. The logistical scale alone of reforming the criminal justice system is not only daunting but also highly impractical. Until presented with sufficient convincing evidence to the contrary, I firmly believe societies should continue to behave as they are; assuming absolute free will as reality and acting accordingly regardless of whether it actually is or not. And if there ever comes a time when the popular notions of freedom are challenged and rejected by the scientific community based on good evidence, the world will never be the same again.