PSYCHOLOGY NOT EVIDENCE OR LOGIC IS BEHIND BELIEF
There is no empirical evidence or definitive proof that humans possess free will. What we perceive as choices may simply be the result of habitual patterns, psychological conditioning, or unconscious influences on our behavior. Our belief in free will could stem more from cultural conditioning and the human tendency to create narratives about personal agency than from any measurable autonomy. In other words, the sense that we freely decide our actions might be an ingrained psychological illusion rather than a demonstrable reality.
Imagine super-science from another realm making a being of flesh and blood that is actually programmed to act like it has free will, a biological automaton. You will feel that being has free will though he has not. Your seeing the free will in him could be your main reason for believing in your own. Maybe that is why you reason, “I see it in him and I feel I have it in me.”
CORRELATION STUDIES
Studies examining the relationship between belief, doubt, or disbelief in free will and people’s behavior as social beings suggest that skepticism or disbelief may increase the likelihood of harmful actions. Belief in free will, on the other hand, appears to motivate students to perform better academically, encouraging them to work hard and earn good exam results rather than resorting to cheating.
Those who doubt or disbelieve in free will may exhibit laziness, poor self-control, or even manipulative and harmful behaviors. However, belief or disbelief in free will does not directly determine whether someone will cheat; rather, it reflects the degree of self-respect and motivation to reach one’s own potential.
The idea that the absence of free will gives permission to act immorally is a misconception. If free will were nonexistent, this should instead inspire us to foster happiness in others—because, even if people don’t “deserve” it in a moral sense, they are still worthy of care and well-being.
SAM HARRIS - WHY IT DOESN'T MATTER IF WE DO NOT BELIEVE
"I’d like to address the common charge that it is simply self-contradictory to talk about the illusoriness of free will while using words such as “choice,” “intention,” “decision,” “deliberation,” and “effort.” If free will is an illusion, it would seem, these qualities of mind must be illusory as well. In one sense, this is true. It would perhaps be more precise to speak of “apparent choices.” But the distinction isn’t generally relevant at the level of our experience. In terms of experience, there is no contradiction between truth and appearance. Even in the absence of free will, I find that I can speak of choices, intentions, and efforts without hedging." "Seeing through the illusion of free will does not undercut the reality of love, for example—because loving other people is not a matter of fixating on the underlying causes of their behavior. Rather, it is a matter of caring about them as people and enjoying their company. We want those we love to be happy, and we want to feel the way we feel in their presence."
TRYING
Psychology explains what we try to do but not what trying is. Free will is an attempt to explain the meaning of trying. The matter is so complex and nuanced but it is high time psychology tackled free will more. Free will theories are just guesses. The randomness in nature and the fact that a lot of it is a causally closed system where cause makes the effect do nothing to show us that our choices are really ours and are not just reactions our animal nature make. There is no evidence for free will and it seems impossible but it is the fact that it seems real in practice and in daily life is why we have so much controversy over it. But the fact that seeming real in life does not make it real. The lack of evidence for free will shows that it is just a guess and one that seems impossible. That is what matters more than free will seeming real. All agreement that free will is real and that we use it daily is in fact an act of submission. Submission means that you have to let what you submit to to do the thinking for you and instead of you deliberating what you should do they do it for you. So handing over the issue to a higher power, to others, to the universe is paradoxically trampling on any free will you might have.
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Dennett, Daniel C. Freedom evolves. Penguin UK, 2004.
Batthyany, Alexander: Mental Causation and Free Will after Libet and Soon: Reclaiming Conscious Agency. In Batthyany und Avshalom Elitzur. Irreducibly Conscious. Selected Papers on Consciousness, Universitätsverlag Winter Heidelberg 2009, p.135ff.
Soon, Chun Siong, et al. "Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain." Nature neuroscience 11.5 (2008): 543-545.
Gazzaniga, Michael. Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain. Hachette UK, 2012.
Dennett, Daniel. “Is Free Will an Illusion? What Can Cognitive Science Tell Us?” Santa Fe Institute. James A. Little Theater, Santa Fe, NM. 14 May 2014. Lecture.
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