by Milton Johanides

Created on: July 23, 2009   Last Updated: July 25, 2009

I believe in free will within a determinist physical structure, a belief I can demonstrate to be valid using the following argument.

Saying that effect B is the result of cause A is not the same as saying that cause A will always have the effect B. There is a level of likelihood in all occurrences but nothing is certain. The most likely probability we can imagine is that the sun will rise tomorrow, but even this is only a probability, even though the possibility of a meteor striking the earth or some other cosmic apocalypse occurring overnight is minuscule. Or consider the statement "if I drop a ball from the fifth floor it will fall to the ground." Most people would agree this is a fair example of determinism and, by deduction, predeterminism. But what if someone else catches the ball before it falls to the ground, or a white owl scoops it up in its beak? The more we remove ourselves from the realm of philosophy and into the real world, the more we see that the concept of determinism is a trick of the eye. If I board the bus for Stockport, does it become inevitable that I will arrive in Stockport? A pessimist could come up with a hundred possible obstacles that might prevent the desired effect occurring.

What if we dissect actions into their smallest possible denomination? If instead of the above statement I said, "If I let go of the ball, and it is unimpeded, it will fall," this statement may well be true, but it is not a statement of determinism only an example of a physical law in operation. The famous example of an arrow never reaching its target might be true in maths (because the distance between arrow and target is always halved but never completed) but clearly in the real world, observation, ie the arrow stopping with a th-dongg and the back quivering, tells us that the arrow has reached its target. Clearly there is a point when rational theorising fails us, and rational observation must take over. Perhaps at some sub-atomic level, the molecules of the arrow do not meet the molecules of the target, but that knowledge cannot then be used to make generalised statements about the destiny of man. Determinism, therefore, is not the strait jacket of free will that some people might think it is.

It is perfectly possible to live in a world where apples leaving branches inevitably obey gravity, and still to have free choice as human beings. Every morning we wake up we decide what to do with our day. Most of us will follow the same pre-set guidelines of having

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