Determinism and Decision Making

There have long since been people asking whether there is such a thing as “Free-Will” in life, whether it would be possible to truly make a decision that comes from yourself fully and has no external influence. In this piece, I intend to state that there is no totally Free-Will in decision making, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, and that using this knowledge will free you and allow you to make better decisions.DeterminismA debate for the ages, whether there is Free-Will or not is a question that many theologians and philosophers have been trying to answer for millennia. There are multiple arguments for the existence of God that predicate on there being Free-Will (as how would eternal punishment and damnation be fair if -you- were not truly the master of your actions). There is a lot of fear in the idea that everything is determined, or even pre-determined, that there is a hand of fate that controls our way through life and no matter what we do, we will always adhere to what that hand points us to. People can also be afraid of the lack of control, the idea that no matter what you did, you could never change the outcome of an event. This has led some people to live a sheltered life where they have given up trying, or become staunchly in the belief of Free-Will as the alternative is too horrifying to contemplate.Decision MakingSo how does decision making almost show that things are deterministic (although not quite pre-deterministic?). When you make a decision, there are three key parts to it.Firstly, you remember what has happened beforehand, any previous outcomes. You may also be aware that you are attempting to make a decision contrary to what you feel you would normally push towards, simply because you are attempting to be anti-deterministic.Secondly, instinct and heritage comes into play. You will tend to act in the interests of your genes and genome, for instance tending to decide to find shelter in rain over going out to grab some milk. This factor has your body’s current state built into it – so if you are unwell or feeling fatigued, you are less likely to do certain things.Finally – Weather. This is the part that is unpredictable. You react to external stimuli and the world around you. In truth, the only truly unpredictable thing is the uncertainty principle in atoms. Theoretically, you could predict everything via modelling except for the location of the electron in an atom. This is what prevents pre-determinism, but with that information, everything else could be modelled.So, for the given situation, you use all three of these factors and then come up with a decision. This does not mean that the decision was uniquely yours – no one else can put these three things together like you can.However, by knowing that this is what goes into a decision, you can look at your decisions closer, understand them further and put more weight into the first factor when making future decisions. This will allow you to prevent making instinctual decisions that aren’t beneficial to you at this point and also prevent you from being overly swayed by the weather.Admittedly, this is not an easy process, unpacking exactly why you acted. It requires a significant amount of self actualisation and prescience to get to a point where you understand these things, but when you get to that point, you will find that you will choose things that benefit you in a better way, not react so much on impulse and the hereditary part of you, and be able to make better, longer term decisions.So do not be afraid that there is no true Free-Will, use that fact to make your decisions better and work for you more, truly take the chance to look inside and act for the best instead of simply reacting to heritage and external stimuli. It will not change how you live your life and you are as free as you have always been. At this stage, you just understand your own thought processes a little better, which is always a useful attribute.