Objection
But we can object that this is too weak a notion of free will. It is not enough to say that I
would have acted differently if I had chosen differently. We also need to say that I could
have chosen differently. Someone may choose to act as they do, but be motivated by a
compulsion or addiction. For example, if I am addicted to smoking, there may be times
when I feel I have to have a cigarette – I can’t chose not to. Yet it would still be true, that
if I did chose not to, then I wouldn’t. But I’m not free to chose not to have a cigarette.
Another example: suppose that someone has inserted a chip into my brain and is able to
cause me to choose to act in a particular way. It is true that if I had chosen differently, I
would have acted differently. But I couldn’t have chosen differently, because someone is
controlling what I choose. In both examples, what I choose determines what I do, yet I
could not choose anything else, so in what sense are my choices free?