Free Will?

In the obviousness of the truth of determinism by David Hume, he states we have no free will, because everything is based off of cause and effect. What he means by this is everything we do is an effect of a previous cause, for example, when I get home from work, I always shower, this isn’t because I am choosing to shower, this is because I just got off work and I smell like French fries. In this scenario, the cause is me returning home from work, and feeling gross from it, so the effect is now me taking a shower. I’m not taking the shower for the fun of it, it’s because something that happened previously has affected the my future actions. 

His main reasons are based on a concept taught to even the younger schoolchildren, cause and effect. David Hume explains it as “…a susperstition, that one object or event has followed another; not one that was produced by the other”. Cause and effect, simplified, means that if I throw the bouncy ball at the ground, it’ll bounce back up. The cause is throwing the ball and the effect is it bouncing back up. He goes even further to explain that it has been accepted universally that all men have a uniformity of actions, despite timeframe and culture, as this is human nature. As we all have the same nature, we all respond to cause and effect similarly. However this doesn’t mean everyone will act exactly the same. He even acknowledges that this theory, has exceptions, because of the diversity of the human body and mind. 

A child in the wrong place at the wrong time, who is unfortunately molested, may grow up differently than other children. They will grow up more anxious, more fearful, and in adolescence, they will be more prone to drug abuse, and more sexual encounters. This is because healthy coping mechanisms are rarely learned, and specifically not with issues like molestation, this means they will turn to more unhealthier coping mechanisms because they know no better. This is an effect of the original cause, the trauma. If down the line, in adulthood, they fatally overdose, would it really be their fault? It wasn’t their fault they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that is one of the many outcomes that could stem from such an event, and without learning healthy coping mechanisms from society did they really stand a chance? It wasn’t free will to live through that event and it wasn’t free will to have a normal, human reaction to such a cause. Therefore, I believe we don’t have free will, sometimes. Hume has convinced me to some degree of determinism, however even he himself noted that there are exceptions, many exceptions, therefore I believe we have no choice but to succumb to human nature, however this does not mean determinism is completely right or wrong, but somewhere on an abstract spectrum. 

If determinism was completely true, I probably would not put much effort into my daily life, or life at all. Without some degree of free will, life to me would be meaningless and really nothing different from the life of an ant, just mindlessly completing the tasks necessary for me, and my families survival. My current “que Sera, Sera” (whatever will be will be) mindset would be darkly turned. This is my current mindset so that I do not stress myself out so much, it helps me remember that no matter what happens, the world will keep turning with me on it. However this could also be interpreted as whatever will happen will happen and nothing I can do will change that because each and every action is a branch off of a past event. After juggling these two interpretations mentally, it reinforces my belief that it is somewhere in the middle on a spectrum.