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Tallis in Wonderland

The Mystery of Freedom

Raymond Tallis thinks up some possibilities to explain free will.

Free will seems impossible in theory and yet appears to be real in practice. How do we reconcile these two observations? We need first to look at the arguments against free will, then exercise our freedom by taking them to pieces.

As the argument goes, every action is a material event, and material events are caused by earlier events; those earlier events are caused by yet earlier events; and so on, possibly all the way back to the Big Bang. What’s more, all events are subject to the laws of nature, which, by definition, are unbreakable. Besides, we need the laws of nature to be 100% reliable if our actions are to have the desired outcomes.

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