Free will does not exist. Period. Everything is determined, or predetermined; it’s a matter of definition.

This may be one of the most comprehensive articles on the subject explaining why free will does not exist on the internet, and as far as I am concerned, the worldview I have developed after this debate nearly destroying my life; or rather saved it. I am not sure at the moment my life is at, I mean, saved or destroyed.

Who am I, and why do I care if free will exists?

Let me introduce myself. I am neither a scientist nor a philosopher and this subject of free will vs. determinism lives at the intersection of science and philosophy. The reason it is both science and philosophy is because it raises both scientific and metaphysical questions and can only be answered with the help of both the disciplines. Albert Einstein who was a famous determinist and didn’t believe in free will, was both a physicist and philosopher. He looked at the problem of free will from the lens of both disciplines.

What brought me to understand if free will exists

I, on the other side was forced by the forces that govern our lives (I will have explained this comment by the time I finish this article) to understand the debate of free will vs. determinism for existential purpose. I ended up taking certain decisions, which, in hindsight, I didn’t understand. When I say I didn’t understand, my introspection left me with questions like the below:

Yeah, these and questions like these were the reason that led to introspection and search for answers. That search led me to the free will vs. determinism debate and at this point I am quite convinced that I have the answer.

The conclusions are mind-blowing

It is so hard to accept the conclusions I have reached, but Albert Einstein reached the same conclusions through his study of relativity and the block universe theory- that free will does not exist. There are other scientists and philosophers I will quote during this article. The reason I am invoking these illustrious figures is not for pretense, but to add credibility to this worldview.

The difference between this worldview and the free will-based worldview is the difference between who do you think is responsible for the kind of life you and I live- is it you or is it a power that’s beyond our grasp. I know, since you have no free will, I can’t guarantee whether you will agree with this article or whether I will able to convince you. But that’s not the point.

The point is that the other side of the free will debate exists extremely strongly, and in the larger society, beyond scientific and philosophical circles, there is little knowledge about this debate. People just assume that free will exists and so they are completely responsible for their lives. That free will does not exist, and nobody, be it the king or the beggar are responsible for their lives, is a completely alternate view of life that’s extremely hard to accept.

Why does everyone automatically believe in free will?

Most of the people just believe by default that they are the owner of their lives and hence their decisions. That’s because that’s what the pop-culture- movies, books, society and cultural figures, and especially people who succeed have us believe. Such an important debate becomes the victor’s side of the view, and that’s not true.

I am not writing this because I am a failure. I have had my good and bad ends of life; but I after studying my life and the science and philosophy available around the debate between free will and determinism has led to me certain conclusions, which I am going to share with you here. Whether you agree or not, for me, is immaterial at the moment.
However, if it makes you happier and peaceful, which it should in case you are carrying the burden of the negative aspects of your life on your shoulders and mind; I would want you to agree that free will does not exist.

However, I know that’s not in my control because like all of us do, you will read this article from the POV of your life and experiences and that’s fine.

Now that I have introduced myself and set the context, let us dive in. Let us start with some quotes:

1. “Life is a series of necessary moments.”- Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach famous for his work The System of Nature (Philosopher)

2. “Man’s life is a line that nature commands him to describe upon the surface of the earth, without his ever being able to swerve from it, even for an instant. He is born without his own consent; his organization does in nowise depend upon himself; his ideas come to him involuntarily; his habits are in the power of those who cause him to contract them; he is unceasingly modified by causes, whether visible or concealed, over which he has no control, which necessarily regulate his mode of existence, give the hue to his way of thinking, and determine his manner of acting. He is good or bad, happy or miserable, wise or foolish, reasonable or irrational, without his will being for anything in these various states. – Baron Holbach

Holbach argued for a strict form of determinism, believing that all actions and thoughts are the inevitable result of prior causes, and hence free will does not exist, or is an illusion.

3. “Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper”

-Albert Einstein (Physicist and philosopher)

Einstein was a strict determinist. His viewpoint asserts his belief that everything is determined beyond the control of human will. 

4. “I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer’s words, ‘Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills,’ accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others, even if they are rather painful to me.” – Letter to Max Born (1944)

-Einstein found comfort in the deterministic outlook, believing that all events and decisions, including human actions, are governed by the laws of physics.

5. “Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills.”

– Arthur Schopenhauer (Philosopher), On the Freedom of the Will (1839)

Schopenhauer distinguished between the ability to act on one’s will and the inability to choose or control the desires that constitute the will, indicating a deterministic view.

6. “The infant believes that it freely seeks milk, the angry boy that he freely desires vengeance, and the timid man that he freely desires to run away.”

– Benedict de Spinoza (Philosopher), Ethics (1677)

Spinoza believed that human beings only think they are acting freely, while their actions are actually determined by causes outside their control, just like everything else in nature.

7. “We ought to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion… for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.”

– Pierre-Simon Laplace (Physicist, Mathematician), A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities (1814)

Laplace famously articulated the concept of determinism in classical physics, sometimes called “Laplace’s Demon,” where he envisioned an intellect that could predict all events based on knowledge of initial conditions and laws of nature.

8.   “It is hard to imagine how free will can operate if our behavior is determined by physical law, so it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion.”

– Stephen Hawking, the Grand Design

Hawking believed that free will is an illusion, arguing that the universe operates under deterministic physical laws making human behavior, like that of a “biological machine,” a product of these laws.

Many credible thinkers in the realm of physics and philosophy have expressed the view that free will does not exist and hence our lives are the product of causes over which we have no control.

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Before we proceed to dive deeper into the debate between free will and determinism, lets us arrive at a definition of free will, that we are working with for the purpose of this piece that posits that free will does not exist. A lot of people refute the arguments against free will on the basis of the definition. So, let us get started with the definition:

Free will: The ability to be the true originator of your thoughts, intentions and desires – a source that is independent of prior causes in the universe.

So, when Schopenhauer says, “Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills,” he means exactly the opposite. He means that man cannot will what he wills. That are NOT the originator of thoughts, intentions and desires.

In the same vein, let us also define determinism:

Determinism is the view that every thought, intention, feeling and action arises from prior causes – extending back through biology, brain, environment and the initial condition of the universe.

Nothing we do could have ever happened differently, because all outcomes are fully dictated by the laws of nature acting on prior states.

That means determinism and free will are absolutely opposite to each other, which is popularly called incompatibilism. As we move forward, we will see that this is the only view that makes scientific and philosophical sense and all other views like compatibilism or randomness do not hold the argument in favor of free will.

Compatibilism – Given the original definition- free will does not exist

Compatibilism is the idea that free will and determinism are compatible. The compatibilist argument is that although everything is determined, the fact that we still make determinist choices proves that we have free will. So, they redefine free will to suit their purpose.

This is a compromise position. Philosophically, it’s a way to avoid the discomfort of determinism without denying science or causality.

Compatibilism is like saying, “I can’t slap you, so I will touch your face, and call it a slap.”

Quantum Randomness – Why does it not negate free will

One of the key objections to determinism is Quantum Randomness but quantum randomness doesn’t save free will because it’s random!

1. Free will demands authorship of your life– that you are the originator of everything that happens in your life. Randomness doesn’t grant you that. Thereby, a choice caused by randomness is no more free than a choice caused by determinism.

2. Free will requires being the originator:

If your mental state is one of the below:

Determined – Your choices are inevitable

Random – Your choices are random

 Neither gives you the independence that free will requires. Free will does not exist in either of the situations.

• Neuroscience shows that decision making is mechanically predictable, that is, conscious “choice” is the last step or the narration of the decision.

Quantum randomness doesn’t give you free will. It merely swaps inevitability for incoherence. It doesn’t make us the author of our choices.

The universe is either deterministic or partially random at the atomic level. Either way, there is no room left for a “you” who could have authored a different life.

Therefore, neither compatibilism not Quantum Mechanics rescue free will.

Once we remove compatibilism, which is the rebranding of free will, and randomness which doesn’t save free will, the only scientific and philosophical conclusion is strict determinism.

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Does free will exist- Why should we believe in strict determinism?

Discipline	Comment/Support for determinism
Scientific	Supported by physics and neuroscience
Philosophical	Necessity follows from logic itself
Logical	Causality implies determinism
Epistemic	Never empirically contradicted

Determinism is as certain as death is a near-total truth – scientifically, philosophically and logically sounds.

The reason I compared determinism to death is because death is certain. Therefore, I wanted to know if determinism is as certain and true as death, and this is the outcome I received from analysis. Hence, determinism is the most complete, coherent and validated picture of reality that human thought has produced.

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On the other hand, if we do the same analysis for free will, this is the output we get:

Free will gets no support from neuroscience, physics, philosophy or causality.

This proves if we analyze the presence of free will either from a worldview perspective (compatibilism, randomness), or from the viewpoint of scientific and philosophical analysis, it doesn’t hold ground.

Determinism stands as the most validated worldview in both domains (science and philosophy.)

Let us now look at the theory that supports strict determinism and explains why the universe is where it is right now, and couldn’t be otherwise.  

The concept of Block Universe – Free will does not exist

 In compact form

t = 0 → Universe born with initial state + laws of physics (t= 0 is the term for the first instant of time)

        ↓

        All possible causal chains encoded

        ↓

        Each worldline = unfolding of those chains

        ↓

        Nothing can happen outside that network. Period. 

Hierarchy of Deterministic Reality

1. Block Universe →

The total four-dimensional reality — everything that ever was, is, or will be, all coexisting timelessly.

contains

2. Spacetime →

The fabric of the block universe — 3 dimensions of space + 1 of time, forming the stage on which all events exist.

contains

3. Worldlines →

The path traced by objects and beings through spacetime. Each worldline is a fixed sequence of events — birth, choices, thoughts, death — all already embedded in spacetime.

 connected by

4. Causality (Causal Chain) →

The lawful glue linking one event to the next. Causality determines how the universe’s initial conditions at t = 0 unfold into every worldline and every flicker of existence.

In one sentence:

• The block universe contains spacetime, which contains worldlines, whose events are connected by causality — all fixed from t = 0.

This explains essentially everything. The block universe contains everything, essentially spacetime, which is the fabric of the block universe. Worldlines are the paths objects trace through spacetime (basically your entire life from birth till death), and causality links one event to another – basically forming the worldlines.

The block universe followed as a conclusion from how relativity treats time in Einstein’s theory of relativity. If you ask me to explain it, I can’t do that. But I can trust Einstein.

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Worldlines and a fixed/determined life trajectory – life without free will

It follows from the block universe view that since we do not author our own lives, free will doesn’t exist.  Also, since worldline is the fixed trajectory of our lives, which we are discovering and not creating, life is essentially being revealed to us.

Life is a revelation; not authorship – Free will requires authorship

Your worldline contains everything:

• Every thought (from “let me have water” to the deepest belief)
• Every feeling (joy, shame, grief, hope, indifference)
• Every motivation and lack of motivation
• Every micro-decision and deliberation (the whole interior process)
• Every neural firing and bodily sensation (the physiological basis of mind)
• Every action and inaction (attempts, pauses, hesitations)
• Every attempt, failure, and success
• Every habit and inertia
• Every moment of courage and every moment of paralysis
• Every spoken word and every silence
• Every relationship, meeting, and crossing of paths
• Every event that affects you from outside (losses, layoffs, accidents, kindnesses)
• Every dream, fantasy, and imagined “what if” (the mind’s simulations)
• Every memory and the way you remember it (interpretation included)
• Every bodily state — health, illness, pain, recovery
• Every emotional pattern and coping response
• Every meaning you form and every meaning you lose
• Every regret, forgiveness, and acceptance
• Every project, plan, and abandoned plan
• Every timing and circumstance that shapes outcomes
• Every moral act and every transgression (and the inner life that accompanies them)
• Every subtle preference, bias, and inclination
• Every creative impulse and every aesthetic moment
• Every ending and every new beginning (including death)

To sum up:

“ALL that you think and do is your worldline unfolding.”

Therefore, all of this is being revealed to you. You are your worldline unfolding.

Basically, man is the personification of his worldline.

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Where does free will fit in all this, and how does it operate?

Your will is part of your worldline. Whatever happens, happens because it is on the worldline. Life is the revelation of what must be.

The will itself – what we want, desire or feel compelled to do – is not free. It arises because of causes beyond our choosing. Causal processes determine the will for man.

Your brain, also fully physical, generates the feeling of deliberation – weighing options, predicting outcomes, feeling free – but all of that is a part of the same worldline sequence. The sensation of “deciding” is itself predetermined.

Your worldline includes the deliberation and the final decision.

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In Conclusion: Free will does not exist- everything is determined

Life is a revelation and not authorship.

Strict determinism is the only scientifically and philosophically valid worldview. The illusion of free will is a part of the worldline, and hence, does not exist. We are not the originator of our thoughts and decisions, causality is. Although we can never understand causality, since it’s beyond human comprehension, it decides everything that happens in our lives.

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Annexure

Here are a few more thoughts and frameworks that may help internalize determinism (I am still trying) :

1. If it happened, it was written at t =0;

If it didn’t happen, it was never on the worldline.

Implication: What’s not on the worldline is impossible. What’s on the worldline must happen.

2. Your life could have unfolded exactly as it did. The worldline you are living is the only worldline that was ever possible for you. Nothing is your life could have been otherwise.

3. Given the laws that govern the universe, only one outcome is possible, the one that actually occurs.

4. Man is both the audience and protagonist of his life – watching himself perform, moment by moment, a story written at t = 0.

5. Every decision belongs to causality, not to me.

6. Whatever you are doing right now is the only thing that could be happening, because that’s what the worldline contains at this coordinate in spacetime.

7. No moment in your life could have unfolded differently. Every moment you have ever lived was produced by the chain of causes (causality) leading to it.

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The Structure of how the universe works

1. Initial state + laws → causality begins operating At t = 0, the universe gives:

• The starting configuration
• The laws of nature
• From that instant, causality starts unfolding.

2. Causality Generates Each Moment : Every thought, emotion, action, decision, hesitation, and event arises because of the causes that precede it.

Each moment is the effect of the moment before.

3. Worldline = the sequence of those moments

Think of the worldline as the “recording” of the entire causal stream:

Cause generates moment 1 → recorded on worldline

Followed by cause generating moment 2 → recorded on worldline

Cause generates moment 3 → recorded on worldline

…all the way FROM YOUR FIRST BREATH TO YOUR LAST.

THE WORLDLINE IS the fixed, stitched tapestry of caused moments.

So, the chain is:

Initial state + laws → causality → caused moments → the stitched worldline.

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Thank you for reading.

*All the research for this article has been done on CHATGPT.