Importance of Free Will

Throughout a day we make many decisions in which we must choose between what is right or what is wrong, between what we feel like and what is convenient for us. Faced with this reality, we can ask ourselves the following question: is our ability to choose totally free or, on the contrary, are there factors that determine our decisions? This question is known as the problem of free will.

The human being does not have a definitive answer on the question of free will, but it is a problem that we have all considered at some point.

This idea is normally used to refer to our ability to choose between good and evil. At times, he alludes to the idea of freedom personal in a general sense. In any case, there are basically two possible approaches:

1) the human being He thinks he is free because he can choose between different options, but in reality there are all kinds of conditions that determine our will and

2) although it is evident that there are certain conditions, our individual will can be imposed on them and, therefore, we are free.

Counterarguments

If we start from the idea that everything works from a cause and effect relationship, our personal decisions are to a great extent conditioned and, consequently, we are not free to choose between different options, but rather the path chosen is the consequence logic of a series of determinants (psychological, social, economic or of any other nature).

In short, there is an appearance of free will because we constantly make decisions, but deep down the circumstances that surround us "force" us to take one path or another. In others words, we are not free because there is always a prior cause that determines our ability to choose.

Arguments in favor

An animal cannot decide that it wants to go against its instincts and a plant cannot stop doing the photosynthesis. However, the human being always has a certain capacity for choice.

It is true that there are very powerful conditions that limit our freedom, but these conditions are not absolute. We could say that we have a conditional release.

These approaches do not mean that we can do or not do what we want at all times. On the contrary, it implies that despite the limitations and impositions that surround us, we always have a margin of freedom that no one can take away from us.

If I am a slave, this implies that I am obliged to obey, but only I decide in which way I obey. The example of the slave reminds us that there are always rules and impositions that limit our free will and, however, the margins of action that we have are the ultimate test of our freedom as individuals.

Images: Fotolia. Marija Piliponyte / Piyaphat