Naturalism is the belief that nothing exists outside of the natural world. Many people denote that if naturalism is true (which I believe is the case) that the laws that govern the universe are what make everything happen. That everything which happens in the universe is a physical play out through time. And that means everything single thing, including our conscious thought and decision-making. That these happenings aren’t some magical exceptions to the physics of the universe. In such a natural universe, things such as “free will” just don’t make sense. If our decisions are tied to the physical processes of the universe, then we only have a say in them in so far as the physical processes output what we will say about them. In other words, what we think, feel, say, and do are all an output of how the universe is playing out (both large scale and small scale processes).
And even if we accept that some events don’t have a cause (e.g. certain interpretations of quantum mechanics), those un-caused events are just part of the physical process that we still have no control over.
Though I agree with such analysis for various reasons, I think the incoherence of free will has a much wider reach. In other words, we don’t have to accept a naturalistic worldview to understand that free will doesn’t make any sense what-so-ever.
We just need to understand that an event (something “happening”) must either have a cause (be an output of something that already exists), or not have a cause (just happen – not the output of anything in existence). These are the only two possibilities for events. Not just “naturalistic” events, but any event. A so-called “supernatural” event simply can’t escape this dichotomy.
And with this dichotomy comes the incoherence of free will.
“BUT!” you might say, “…once we get outside of what is natural we also escape time! If there is no time then there is no previous event to cause it.”
To which I would reply, if there was no time in such a supernatural realm, then there are no “events”. Everything in existence would be a “static picture”. Such a static picture makes any notion of “willing” nonsensical. Even if we were to say there is a connection between the natural which is in time and the supernatural that is outside of time, and connection to a static picture could never be something that can freely change ones course of action.
“Ahhh ‘Trick! It may be that time exists but is different in this supernatural realm.”
To which I’d mention that no matter what theory of time or no-time, when it comes to an event, no time conception (or conception of non-time) helps grant free will. Addressing different time possibilities, however, is a much lengthier process. Chapter 19 of Breaking the Free Will illusion for the Betterment of Humankind is titled “Time Possibilities”. It goes into great length through many different time possibilities and how none can be used as someone’s free will savior.
The point of this article, however, is that supernatural (or non-natural) free will is just as absurd as natural free will. The only (but not really) escape is to say that “logic” itself can’t be used for the supernatural realm. But this is even worse as any idea surrounding the term “free will” needs to be thrown out with “logic” as all identity of such gets obliterated in such a realm. We simply can’t use language about having “free will” when “free will” (or anything at all) can’t be logically identified. When the incoherent nature of free will leads one to say an incoherent free will exists, we have just dropped our rigor and standards of knowledge down to the lowest denominator.
Saying that something is outside of the natural (for whatever that could possibly mean) is entirely different than saying something is outside of logic. For free will to exist, whether natural or supernatural, it indeed must be outside of logic, and into the realm of absurd nonsense.
Click here for an infographic of what such supernatural free will might look like. 😉
As a side note, there are some interesting Facebook groups that pertain to the topic of this post that I every now and again participate in and would like to recommend. The people who host and who participate in these groups are top notch, thoughtful, courteous, helpful, and kind.
Naturalism – A group focusing on a naturalistic worldview and what such means. Just awesome.
The Illusion of Free Will – A great group with the important focus of discussing the free will illusion.
No Free Will (Determinists and Incompatibilists) – A group I made a while back which has some awesome no-free-willists.
Catch yall lata’!
'Trick Slattery
Latest posts by 'Trick Slattery (see all)
- Semantic Shift Day, August 31 – REMINDER! Mark your calendar! - August 1, 2020
- Debunking Dennettian Diatribe - May 2, 2018
- Compatibilism: A Parable (comic) - December 7, 2017
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.