Worst arguments against free will I have read here

  1. We can’t act against our strongest desire, therefore, we don’t have free will. Reply: how would it take free will away from me? My experience is that of a competition between desires, the strongest one wins, then I need to make a conscious choice to choose the best method to act on it.

  2. We are biological entities, therefore, we don’t have free will. Reply: seriously, what the hell? Why should one be an angel or a god in order to have free will?

  3. We can’t choose individual thoughts, therefore, we don’t have free will. Reply: sounds as absurd as saying that we can’t choose how to move our bodies because we don’t consciously control individual small muscles.

  4. We don’t control our brains, therefore, we don’t have free will. Reply: why should I be separate from my brain in order to have free will?

  5. Conscious thoughts and decisions are preceded by unconscious mental processes, therefore, we don’t have free will. Reply: how else should cognition work?

  6. We can’t always choose good, therefore, we don’t have free will. Reply: in order to make a choice between good and bad, one must enter a situation where one needs or desires to resolve moral ambiguity. Not everyone is lucky enough to have the right sort of character to desire that.

  7. We can’t choose our beliefs and desires, therefore, we don’t have free will. Reply: you are begging the question by assuming that I need to choose something more than actions in order to have free will. Also, what would it even look like to choose a belief? I can’t make sense of it. I tend to like feminist philosophy, and the idea that our beliefs and desires are usually sort of given to us by the circumstances is the backbone of certain branches of feminism, but free choice is also a huge part of feminism.

  8. Other animals don’t have free will, therefore, humans don’t have free will either. Reply: you are begging the question by claiming that other animals don’t have free will.

  9. Belief in free will leads to cruelty, therefore, it’s better to believe that free will does not exist. Reply: I believe that I have free will, which is a capacity to make conscious choices in order to satisfy my desires, needs and goals, and this belief is absolutely orthogonal to my moral views. The only difference it makes is that I view humans as being able to consciously choose what to do, which is a requirement for any social practice in general.

Feel free to list your favorite worst arguments.