a picture held us captive

Some of our concepts do not fit with how we have to do things. So it is with free will.

The argument over the existence of free will is an immoral argument. For however the argument is settled, making decisions and sticking to them is still something that needs encouragement.

All that the argument over free will demonstrates is that absolute free will, not determined by anything but free will, does not exist. What sort of a thing that would be if it existed isn’t clear – apart from a kind of metaphor or parable.

Saying free will doesn’t exist only means you have stolen the word for your own metaphysical pleasures.

No, free will, our freedom, is not absolute. It is learned and can be either nurtured and encouraged or ignored and undermined.

Free will is determined. It is determined by a person’s abilities – specifically their ability to imagine different courses of action and decide between them, and their courage to do what they think best.

The difficult fact to face is that without the myth of absolute free will, we are left with a matter of ability. Some people are more imaginative, are better at figuring out what to do, and are more courageous. Some people are more free than others. We just have to deal with that.

For people in secular modern life to feel that their lives are their own, to make life something we do on purpose, to end the infinite iterations of our ancestors peccadilloes - free will has to be taught and encouraged and valued and supported at every possible level.

Instead there is just a cold, technical and fundamentally meaningless debate, and the impossibly slow, unthinking ebb and flow of the boundaries in which we live.