When looking at free will and determinism through humanistic/existential theoretical perspectives, one must first question through their own experience what one believes about their own life. Are you one to believe that you have freedom to change your destiny and alter your life path through your choices, or that your history (your past, the world you were born into, your parents’ lives, grandparents’, etc.) are the cause that lead you to a future that is already in a sense an effect of the past? Or, do you believe it can be a combination of both?
The key to understanding this through both humanism and existentialism centers on the human individuals’ subjective experiences while they differ slightly in: 1) Humanism is a view that emphasizes the importance and distinction of being human in the search of freedom and progress—both as individuals and as a collective—especially that human abilities of critical thinking and scientific thought can suffice to answer humanity’s questions; 2) Existentialism, on the other hand, is a philosophy that tries to reconcile one’s arguably meaningless existence through not only one’s thoughts, but their actions, feelings, and subjective experiences to understand and create one’s own life purpose.
Now, to connect free will and determinism to these perspectives:
A) Humanism’s inherent philosophy and ethical stance would lean towards the argument for free will. As a humanist, one’s goal is to further advance humanity through social and scientific progress with the aims of ultimately creating a utopia (the perfect world) while reducing the importance of dogmatic and religious belief. Faith is put into humanity and its inherent “goodness,” which guides the individual and society to improve the human condition. So, valuing human agency to affect change for the better, humanism coheres with free will more than determinism as evidenced by its main pillar of the human individual’s life goal of self-actualization (becoming who you and possibly what your society want you to be; humans are social animals so acceptance plays an important role). Self-actualization is the highest aim and reflects the individual’s and society’s values as becoming that person fulfills—to seek to achieve this state of being requires one to reach their full potential through creativity, independence, spontaneity, and control of their world. According to this human need, free will is required as individuals must decide what they want to achieve or become and then manifest their aspiration through choices that promote that outcome. However, one can argue that determinism plays a role, too, but that it cannot exist by itself without free will according to a humanistic understanding. As social creatures, the cultural values and taboos affect our conception of our self-actualized self, so the society and culture we inherit shapes our values. It determines our set and setting (our self and environment), which does put us on a certain course from that point. However, as seen through trends and history, we humans can still create novel ideas and spread cultural memes that influence the human world’s future destination based on people’s free will—whether they accept it or not or “make it a thing.” Therefore, humanism requires that there is free will as humans and their society eventually progress, but that determinism may exist as this world has a history which serve as precedents for the future—yet free will ultimately drives changes as what once was valued may become a taboo, or vice versa.
B) Existentialism poses to philosophize about a world that can only be understood, felt, perceived, and sensed by one’s own living experience. Therefore, it is quite hard to really be objective about its perspective on free will and determinism. To an existentialist, free will, or determinism, or a combination of both are the way the world works depending on how you experience the world through your thoughts, feelings, and actions as a living thing. Thus, it will always be somewhat subjective—even when trying to be objective as being objective requires two or more sentient beings to agree about an event, thing, idea, etc. with less perception and more sense: facts and data—two or more subjective experiences that coincide may earn “objectivity.” However, to some philosophers, we can only account for our own experience, as we cannot know whether someone else has a sentient experience like ours or at all—an inherent solipsism. To be a conscious being is to experience the universe, but it is the experience that makes it real, not the words or labels we use to define things—those are abstract and are tools for conveying to other beings—experience in the end is the only thing that exists and through it exists reality. One has to ask this question: Does reality exist if it cannot be perceived? Yet, the main principle in existentialism is to be “authentic;” it is hard to define this point, but essentially it is being your true self: living free with passion and sincerity in an otherwise meaningless and absurd reality. So, existentialism contends that there is the possibility of free will to be anything, as according to one’s actions and behaviors, this is what others use to identify you, but with even more freedom to create one’s own purpose and meaning in life. This suggests that one does not only have free will but that they are responsible for being who they are and how they live: acting a role, expressing different emotions, creating an identity through style, etc. To be true to oneself, one must also be able to break free of any deterministic ideas about self; of course, we all play certain roles in life and have an identity that we maintain according to social norms and rules, yet in theory, we do not have to be those or express ourselves as expected—yet existentialists say our behaviors and our actions are who we are to other people so that only reinforces living up to one’s self-identity. In theory, existentialism should further emphasize free will, but acknowledges that in this world’s society, a type of determinism exists if imagined by the person through their insistence on living up to a reputation, belief, value, role, etc.
Both humanism and existentialism are more modern concepts and philosophies that seem to coincide in that they idealize free will over determinism. For both, determinism assumes the causes of past with set history, values, or identities; yet always promotes the idea that free will gives choice to change one’s fate and destiny in the future. To humanism, the future is progress and freedom—a result of free will. To existentialism, determinism limits potential to be true to one’s experience and therefore every experiencer is responsible for their own freedom to act according to their passions and sincerity. Both perspectives encourage the exercise of free will and limits determinism to the point that it is only a starting point and that the future always holds new possibilities that are chosen.
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