# Does no free will necessarily entail fatalism or nihilism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 29, 2024, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-no-free-will-necessarily-entail-fatalism-or-nihilism/1000940 "2024-04-29T19:37:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 114
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-no-free-will-necessarily-entail-fatalism-or-nihilism/1000940/114 "2024-05-18T03:25:13Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > How does your agent make decisions? > [@Can libertarian free agency be distinct from deterministic, random, and semi-random causation?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-libertarian-free-agency-be-distinct-from-deterministic-random-and-semi-random-causation/940472/34): > > I’m sorry to disappoint, but I don’t think ‘how free agency works’ is knowable. My categorization of it as a separate category of event causation is based on the mechanism or process being unknowable. ~Max While there _may_ be a component “decision-making process” such as rational deliberation, no specific process is strictly required. It is only necessary that no amount of physical knowledge can ever be sufficient for one (e.g. a daemon) to derive the true probability distribution of potential outcomes. Compare, > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > If, by “for what reason” or “how,” you mean “by what mechanism” or “what determines their choice,” you’re missing the point or begging the question. Under free will, you can’t look for a causal chain that extends further back than the individual doing the choosing. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > If free will worked according to a “mechanism,” that explained what determines a person’s free choices, it wouldn’t be free will. ~Max --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-no-free-will-necessarily-entail-fatalism-or-nihilism/1000940)._