Do I have the ability to understand exactly how another person perceives experiences, ideas and beliefs? Am I able to adopt the mindset of someone else and look at the world the same way they do? No. I can do this to a certain extent, but I do not possess the capacity to truly perceive reality in the same way anyone else does. I can better understand the mindset of someone who grew up in the same place and time that I did. It would certainly help if we were raised in the same culture, attended the same schools, went to the same clubs, were of the same gender, had the same friends, shared the same religious beliefs and political ideology, etc. These similarities would allow me to make more accurate assumptions about how this other person perceives reality, as they have played formative roles in both of our lives, but I would still be unable to honestly say that I can fully see things from their perspective.
If I could do this, if I could step outside of the circumstances of my upbringing, if I could remove the effect that the forces beyond my control such as time, geography, culture, class, gender, race, religion, genetics, etc. have had upon my perception, I would attain a new freedom. I would be able, with my own will, to freely examine everything in a new way, unobstructed by own perception and individual understanding. I would have true free will.
Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking. You are probably going, “No, Marshall, that is not the definition of free will. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Let me explain with the help of one of my best friends and colleagues, the dictionary. There are two definitions of free will, and I am speaking about the second one. “Free will” is defined:
1. free and independent choice; voluntary decision: You took on the responsibility of your own free will.
2. Philosophy. the doctrine that the conduct of human beings expresses personal choice and is not simply determined by physical or divine forces.
The first definition could also be described as “the ability to make choices (selections).” I feel like it is reasonable to say that it is obvious that humans of sound mind possess the ability to make selections of what we want to do or think from the pool of available options.
If you want to cross the street, you are able to choose to use the crosswalk rather than the other options (running across the middle of the street, skipping across the street, cartwheeling, etc.) You cannot choose, however, to levitate across the street. Unless you are David Blaine or some other supernatural being, your choices of how you could cross the street are constrained by your own physical abilities.
If you want to concentrate on your math homework, you can choose to use your mental energy to figure out the answers to your math problems rather than to ponder Chipotle’s reasoning for charging so much for guacamole or life’s other classic existential questions. I understand that sometimes it seems impossible to stop thinking about a certain thing, but you still possess the ability to choose to try to stop thinking about it, so you would still be utilizing your ability to make a choice. However, when choosing what to ponder, you could not choose to use your mental energy to think about something that you do not possess any knowledge about. You probably could not, for example, spend your time thinking on the accomplishments of Dougal Thorburn, because you do not know who he is or anything about the amazing feat he has accomplished.
These illustrations show us that we have the ability to choose between choices, but also reveal that we do not have the ability to choose what those choices are. I cannot choose to levitate or think about that of which I am unaware. As I explained in the beginning of this article, I also cannot choose to perceive the world the way someone else does. I am bound by my own perception, and my perception has been developed by forces beyond my control. I cannot choose to adopt a different perception, nor can I choose to choose to do so either. Outside forces of time, geography, culture, class, gender, race, religion, genetics, etc. play a role in shaping how I perceive the world. My perception of reality narrows my choices to choose from (or options to select from) in terms of ways of thinking about certain events and ideas.
The conduct of human beings expresses personal choice, but those choices are influenced by external physical forces over which we do not have control. Since we are unable approach reality in an objective way, unconstrained by our upbringings and perceptions, uninfluenced by factors that we cannot control, we cannot have true free will.
