Every individual is composed of nature and nurture working together in some unique way to shape our beliefs and way of life. Based on the makeup of our brain, we all have certain biological tendencies that are completely out of our control. We are then born into a random part of the world, to a random family, to be raised in a completely random culture and society. All of these elements greatly impact the ideas that we are exposed to early on in life. It is no surprise that the vast majority of people hold the same views as their parents both politically and religiously. Many people will then have the opportunity to go on and get educated and exposed to other ideas. The ones that appeal to them will help mold them more and more. As we go throughout life exposed to more and more ideas and people, we continue to shape our beliefs until the day we die. As Lincoln once said:

“All of us are the children of conditions, of circumstances, of environment, of education, of acquired habits and of heredity molding men as they are and will forever be”

While all of this is common sense, it is worth mentioning because it directly ties to how much of our beliefs and actions are on account of our free will. We have no control on how we are biologically made up and the ways in which our brains will have predispositions. We again have no say in the time, place, or the family we are raised in. Despite this, all of these have the largest impact on what beliefs we grow to hold. After all, had we been born in a different time, place, or to another family, we would have completely different ideologies. Based on how we are educated and the people that we are exposed to, we then hear ideas that seem either agreeable or not based on our previous notions and our biological makeup. At a certain point, you might wonder where our free will even takes place. Are we really responsible for our beliefs or are we are just reactionary animals going through the motions?

Most people would agree that we should all be held accountable for our actions and beliefs (myself included), but it is worth considering at what point we are the ones responsible. Take for instance, someone who is racist. The majority of people (hopefully) would agree that a racist person is in the wrong and should be held accountable for this belief. But suppose that this person is instead a 5 year old child. They are born to a small town in rural Georgia. Their entire family is racist and those are the only ideas they are exposed to. Do you blame the 5 year old for holding these same beliefs? Some might still say yes, but it seems much less black and white than it is with the adult. Do we blame the 8 year old? 10? What if they are never exposed to alternative ideas until they are over 20?

While this is in no way an effort to justify racism, I am just trying to demonstrate that the accountability for what people believe and do might be less in their control than we’d like to hope. This same thought experiment can be applied to all forms of belief including politics and religion. Instead of shaming and down talking people who think differently than ourselves, it would likely be much more beneficial to help expose them to alternative ideas and explain your reasonings. This notion becomes even more crucial as technology leads our society more and more towards isolated bubbles of thought. When we scroll through social media and watch news that only reflects back the same beliefs we hold, we disallow ourselves from being exposed to alternative ways of thinking. Once we firmly decide in our beliefs and refuse to hear alternatives, we stop ourselves from ever learning and growing. Dogmatism becomes the first step down the road to our own intellectual death.

So getting back to how much free will we possess, it is hopefully clear that the deterministic side of the argument has some merit. We often have less say than we like to imagine in the beliefs that expose themselves to us and how our brains will react to them. That being said, the side for free will certainly has an argument as well. After all, if we are to all walk around as purely rational creatures that chalk everything up to determinism, chaos would surely ensue.

This problem often arises when we forget our emotional nature. Humans live and react on more emotion than reason. If someone has physically or emotionally hurt us or someone we love, there is likely no amount of reason or rationalization that will alleviate our strong feelings. Even though we could probably break down all the factors that led up to the event and understand why they did what they did, it doesn’t make much difference to someone who feels wronged. In “The Brothers Karamazov,” Ivan Karamazov is discussing this same notion of free will. Being a materialist and rationalist (and having what he calls a “Euclidean” mind), he firmly holds that we don’t truly possess free will. He reasons that nobody is truly to blame for their actions, but despite this, he irrationally still demands retribution and retaliation when someone has acted against him: