Four free will fables

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As Fred was growing up, his parents told him what to do in order to be a good person, and that's what he does. Or tries to do. When a situation he's in matches something that he's been told about, he does what he's been told to do in that situation. When there's no clear match and he needs to decide what to do, he follows the decision-making guidelines that he's been told to use.

Does Fred exhibit free will? Does he have it?

If you asked him whether he did or not have free will he would have said yes.

Or he would have said no, it all depends on what he's been told.

Do you think he exhibits free will?

Jane was raised differently than Fred. Her parents also told her what to do in order to be a good person. And one of the things they told her was: "Question everything! Don't take anything on authority." Then they laughed and added, "Including this."

So she does what she's been told. She's open to different points of view and chooses among them.

If you asked her whether he did or not have free will she would probably have said yes.

Do you think she exhibits free will?

Tommy grew up just like Jane, but his parents also told him:  "never make an important decision until you've spent at least five minutes inventing plausible alternatives, then choose the best among them."

When Tommy is faced with an important decision he does a lot of thinking because that's what he's been told to do. Sometimes he thinks of things that are the same as or based on things he's read. From time to time he thinks of something that he can't remember having read or heard, so he thinks that it's his own idea.

If you asked Tommy whether he has free will he might give you a quick answer. If you told him it was an important decision, he might take five minutes thinking, then give you an answer.

Do you think he exhibits free will?

Mary was raised like Tommy, or maybe like Jane, or maybe even like Fred, but her path diverged after she had what she came to call "waking up." She suddenly realized that she lived most of her life in a kind of trance state, doing things automatically. Then she lost that realization. Then, later, she had it again and realized that she'd spent the time between the two realizations in a trance state.

She learned that she was not the only person ever to have that experience: there was a body of thought, literature, and practice devoted to understanding, maintaining and extending the experience that she called "being awake."

If you asked Mary before her "awakening" if she had free will, she would have said yes.

If you asked her afterward, she would have said: "Certainly not when I'm in the trance state. In that state, everything that I do is conditioned. There's no free will involved."

If you asked her after she'd been working for a while to understand "awakeness" and "trance" she might have said: "I might. But if I do, it's only when I'm awake."

If you asked her sometime later she might have laughed. Then she might have written this post, which I would have found in my Drafts folder.

I might have edited this several times because that's what I've been conditioned to do.

And, then, as I am conditioned myself to do, I would have published it.

But first, I would have changed the date to January 13.