Libertarianism Without Free Will

More than most political ideologies, Libertarianism gives the concept of Free Will an awful lot of importance. As stated by one of its best-known proponents, John Stuart Mill, the individual is entitled to absolute freedom insofar as this doesn’t disable any other individual from enjoying their freedom too. What this looks like in real life is exemplified by a libertarian position on cannabis use (and any substance use). No external authority has the right to prohibit individuals from smoking marijuana, for as long as the individual’s drug use impacts no other individual. For this reason, libertarians tend to see no problem with euthanasia, suicide, or anything that does not affect anyone but he who has chosen it.

Libertarianism’s antithesis, authoritarianism, would argue that the state or any authority should be able to determine what individuals are permitted to do. It is the libertarian belief in purely self-regarding action that reveals the assumed ghost in the machine. If we refute that even seemingly self-regarding actions will inevitably restrict other individuals’ freedoms by causal law and chaos theory, it can only be on the grounds that people are not subject entirely to causes, and that they wield personal autonomy. In this sense, Libertarians must believe in self-regarding actions, and if not, they must accept that their actions are in a definite albeit roundabout way, infringing on other people’s freedoms.

Moreover, under a superficial analysis, the concept of ‘choice’ is often appealed to as justification of the logically sound but socially unacceptable libertarian beliefs. To the often-outraged demand; “Why on earth do you think prostitution is should be legal?”, many people inclined to Libertarianism would reason that the prostitutes have decided to work in that profession, and that nobody but the prostitute can decide what is right for her to do. Here we arrive at the crux. If you can’t honestly appeal to free will as a justification of her working as a prostitute, then on what grounds can you say she is selling her body for sex because she has chosen to, rather than simply as a cause of economic difficulty or whatever else it might have been?

In the worst of cases, an inauthentic appeal to free will can seem callous and irresponsible;

“Why don’t you buy the homeless man a sandwich?”

“Well, he decided to be there, he is not uniquely dictated by other people’s actions, he has free will. Given his choice to be in his current state, why would my buying him a sandwich in any way help him? It may even serve as proof that he has made a good decision, having yielded many free gifts and acts of kindness.”

Although this example may seem artificial and unlikely in equal measure, it is beyond doubt that the concept of free will is easily abused if we give it the credence libertarianism seems to demand of it. The difficulty for the libertarian is finding where the line between self and other regarding actions lies. At what point is the homeless man pitied rather than ridiculed for his situation? When does an influence on an individual become so strong that the freedom of that individual become meaningfully infringed? In the belief that the individual never had freedom, the reasoning that the prostitute chose her profession is from the beginning flawed. But these aren’t reasons to abandon Libertarian sentiment all together.

In truth, the pursuit of Libertarianism should be a search for the manner of living most conducive to human wellbeing. As sophisticated primates, our systems of justice, morality and accountability demand a feeling of autonomy to generate feelings of personal responsibility. Libertarianism should show us that the illusion of freedom is pivotal to leading fulfilled lives, and not claim to have formulated an ideology in line with logical truth.The assumption of free will is what makes Libertarianism so attractive, and were it true that we possessed autonomy, far further reaching.

However, the challenge now lies in simultaneously letting compassion flow from our helplessly inevitable material existences and entertaining the illusion of free will to engender wellbeing and meaning to our all too human mental lives . Let's forgive the alcoholic and understand how there was nothing he could have done to avoid his condition, but also lets reward him for getting better, although this is an equally poor reflection of his moral standing. The combination of determinism and libertarianism equips us with funnily contradictory yet complimentary systems of moral reasoning and gives us the conceptual machinery to be the kindest versions of ourselves.