November 16

Bertrand Russell considered the question of free will. He supposed the worst: that the future is fixed, given the past. He noted that while it will never be possible to predict the future completely, we can take no comfort in that. Still, he did not fear loss of free will. What we (the human race) might fear is being compelled by outside forces. Causing, however, is not compelling. The key is that in the end, we do what we choose to do.

Again, Russell considered the worst possible case. He supposed that there were beings who could see the future and knew it to be immutable. Would these creatures ever view the future with feelings of regret and impotence? Russell said no. Knowing their future deeds, they would also know the motivations for those deeds. Those motivations would be genuinely reasonable since all decisions would be informed by the knowledge of the consequences of those deeds.

Russell concluded that the most important aspect of free will, the freedom from coercion, the knowledge that your actions are taken at your own volition, still remained.



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