Einstein and free will

Albert Einstein was famously and consistently a determinist and, consequently, did not believe in free will. His views on this subject were deeply rooted in his scientific worldview, particularly his understanding of the universe as governed by strict, unyielding laws. And yet his life commands the idea of freedom of thoughts better than many others.

 As a physicist, Einstein understood the world as a mechanistic universe. He believed in a universe where every event, from the motion of planets to the workings of the human mind, is causally determined by prior events and the fundamental laws of physics. He often expressed this through his famous rejection of quantum mechanics' probabilistic nature with the phrase, "God does not play dice with the universe." For him, the apparent randomness in quantum mechanics simply meant that we hadn't yet discovered the deeper, deterministic laws at play.

Einstein was significantly influenced by philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer and Baruch Spinoza, both of whom were prominent determinists. He often quoted Schopenhauer's idea: "Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills." This encapsulates Einstein's view that while we may feel like we're making choices, the desires and intentions themselves are predetermined. 

This takes us to the illusion of free will. For Einstein, the human sense of having free will was an illusion. He likened it to the moon believing it moves around the Earth by its own will. While we experience ourselves as acting freely, our actions are, in his view, the inevitable outcome of the complex interplay of biological, environmental, and physical forces. And yet such an ilusion of riding a wave of light was a freedom which opened new doors to the deterministic equations he wrote so feverishly. 

Despite his philosophical conviction in determinism, Einstein acknowledged the practical necessity of acting as if free will exists in daily life and for the functioning of society. He recognized that morality, responsibility, and social order rely on the assumption that individuals are accountable for their actions. However, this was a practical compromise, not a contradiction of his underlying deterministic belief.

 His belief in the absence of free will also informed about his personal philosophy, leading to a degree of humility and empathy. As he put it, this awareness "keeps me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and from losing my temper." If everyone's actions are determined, it provides a framework for understanding rather than judging.

Einstein's unwavering commitment to a deterministic universe, where all events are governed by fixed laws, led him to conclude that human free will, in the sense of an uncaused choice, is ultimately an illusion. And yet he chose what suited him all his life. It come to my mind such that in a huge deterministic universe could their then be place for freedom of thoughts and acts which was sustainable since the larger equation was not being changed. A small idea , a small protest and even an atom bomb thrown on a million people is accomodated as collective will which was free enough to forget others life.