Lightning flashes. But is there a lightning doing the flashing? Or is it a single process? And similarly, when ‘you choose’ is there a ‘you’ ‘choosing’, or is this again one process? Nietzsche argues free will is an illusion. Lightning flashing is one process, and so are you. Free will is an invention created to make us feel guilty and deserving of punishment. Writes Alexandre Fillon.

In a famous passage from the Critique of Practical Reason [1], Kant aims to show how we can be sure of our free will in ordinary experience. It is not a proper demonstration, since it is impossible to prove freedom empirically, as empiricism is ruled by the determinism of the laws of nature, but rather an example that helps us to understand the relationship between morality and free will. At the same time, Kant’s strategy is to point out the limits of determinism, the position that denies the existence of free will. Let us imagine a hedonist, someone who feels incapable of resisting the inclination of his or her desires. With such a character, we might doubt the ability of their will to choose freely between one action or another. Show them a house where they can satisfy their deepest desires, but with gallows in front, and establish a clear rule: if you give in to temptation, you will be hanged. Kant ironically suggests that any hedonist will contain themselves, thanks to their own will and, above all, out of the fear of imminent death. It is thus possible, in some circumstances, to successfully fight against most of the external inclinations that seem to govern our lives. Nevertheless, a strong determinist, like Hobbes for example, would argue against Kant that this case does not prove in any way the ability of our own will to determine our actions by itself, which is the central aspect of free will. The will of the hedonist is not liberated from any external force, or even from any desire: they are merely obeying a desire more powerful than all others, the desire to stay alive, not to be killed.