Living Without Free Will

Written By

Blake Bertuccelli-Booth

In Open Socrates, Philosopher Agnes Callard sees polarization as a good thing.

Socrates is constantly faced with people who think they are right. His interlocutors’ polarizing attitudes give Socrates something to question. If Euthyphro, for instance, was so-so on whether he should charge his father with murder, Socrates wouldn’t have a subject to question.

In the spirit of fostering polarizing thought, I am going to use this post to explore a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot: Free Will.

I now believe in an omniscient God. We have no Free Will. All is determined. That which determines our life is, for lack of a better word, “God.”

My days have been built around the question: “What do I fill my time with if all is already decided for me?” I have come to terms with time as an eternal present. Everything is already held in Truth that exists beyond me.

My life has become what I can only describe as “religious.” I am engaged in a constant act of worshiping the All-Knowing.

My religion does not have a Gospel. How could anything I create or understand represent the All-Knowing?

I have nothing to worship but the knowledge that all is determined. I elevate nothing else, not even surrender.

So, where does living without Free Will leave me?

I believe the most holy people are those who fall silent after many years of hypothesis and inquiry. But I am also not sure about anything because I only give Truth (note the capital “T”) to the All-Knowing God. And since I am not sure about anything. Everything is absurd or perfect; no matter which. I must accept it all because it is as it must be. Without Free Will, I am free.

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Comments

One response to “Living Without Free Will”

July 19, 2026

Michael Gilmore

Hi Blake,
In absence of a Laplacian demon machine, I veer back toward my functionalist tendencies. I’ve not heard a great argument for positing a will that is free in the sense most mean when they use the term.

What interests me about free will is not really the question of whether a decision can somehow appear outside causation, because I do not know what that would even mean in practical terms. The more useful question is whether a person can become aware of some of the forces acting through them and then begin changing the conditions under which later choices are made. I did not choose the mind, history, habits, or circumstances I started with, but reflection, learning, and deliberate practice can still alter what that system is capable of doing next. That may not be freedom in the absolute metaphysical sense, but it seems to me like a real form of agency rather than an illusion we have to discard simply because causes exist.

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