Illusions of Free Will and Fate by Utterly Lost

Forgive me for the length here, but even a simplified discussion of free will vs. fate is still a lengthy task.

In reading a number of theories on here on the free will vs. fate debate, I see that some of you are much bigger free will junkies than I will ever be. Perhaps then, I offer this more simplistic view because my coursework was only loosely related to this subject, but perhaps in this situation a little simplicity might be best.

First, I have been obsessed with Lost since the first season, purely because of the obvious free will vs. determinism (fate) undertones, of which I do not need to reiterate to all of you. This brought me back to thinking about a philosophy course that focused specifically on free will (the one that began my long journey of debating this subject and its implications).

Throughout this course, we examined the idea that we have free will. Interestingly, many great thinkers have theorized that our feelings of free will are nothing more than an illusion. Rather, each choice that we make is ultimately determined by our prior experiences, environment, genetics, etc. (hints the term, determinism). Even more broadly, this debate reaches into the theological realm, as religious experts also question whether God determines our path, or whether we are allowed to exert free will on our own. There are many far-reaching implications of taking either view.

Aside from these points however (which are discussions in themselves), I have come to draw one important conclusion: Although “free will” might in fact be an illusion and/or product of fate, it is these FEELINGS of free will that are essential to our decision-making and in turn, in leading us to our determined paths.

Let me explain, as I attempt to tie this all in with Lost.

Let’s start with a hypothetical example; Let’s say I am thoroughly convinced that I do not exert free will. I have come to accept that I am a product of fate, and now take on a Daniel-like attitude “Why bother? We can’t change anything, even if we wanted to.”.

Interestingly, (and this is my contribution to this theory): By denying my feelings of “free-will”, feelings that would have lead me to my otherwise-fate (as I call it), then I might actually be exerting a more real form of free will in attempting to deny my determined path. (I know some of you disagree already, or are at least confused, but bear with me, I’m going somewhere).

(Note: one could make the counter-argument here that this is still not an instance of true free will, and I agree. It was fate/destiny that led me to come to that conclusion, but that idea will also come into play here, as it seems that the MIB has been using John’s supposed “fate” to lead him astray from his otherwise-would be fate.)

In turn, and more importantly, taking this view might lead one in an another direction from their otherwise-fate, and possibly even towards unintended negative consequences in doing so. In this example, the outcome is simply apathy, but the far more relevant and powerful examples are Desmond’s experiences and Locke’s coercion towards “fate” by the MIB (which I will get to next).

Before delving too far into the Jacob/MIB situation, let’s first consider the most solid example of this odd form of “free-will”, coerced by feelings of fate:

When Desmond seeks to change the future because of his knowledge of fate, he is exerting this odd-form of free-will, and at the same time attempting to work against a predetermined path (built upon the free-will illusion). The result here would be devastating consequences. “You’ll kill us all!”. Of course, the consequences are more obvious here, but this idea also applies to the murky MIB/Jacob situation.

(BTW Please do not read too much in to these debatable examples, as I am simply leading you towards my final conclusions).

Finally then, since you’ve stuck with me this far, we can now apply these ideas to the Jacob/MIB game.

In Jacob’s contact with Ben, Hurley, etc., he seems to be emphasizing the former idea, the “free will” illusion of choice. He is not doing this because he thinks that his comments will actually change their minds, but rather because for his plan to work, then they might necessarily need feelings of free will to guide them towards their ultimate fate.

In other words, it is “their choice”, even if it really isn’t. It is ultimately their fate to make those decisions, but just as importantly, it is also their feelings of free will that will drive them to make those decisions (ultimately enabling them to fulfill their destiny). If they were to simply accept their fate, deny it, or even have knowledge of it, then they could in turn end up changing it, just as Desmond attempted to.

This brings us to the Locke/MIB situation as the ultimate example of the opposite view. By submitting to one’s “fate”, as Locke has been driven to do since season 1, he could actually end up working against his true otherwise-fate. In this situation, he has essentially been persuaded to deny his illusions of free-will, and instead work towards his supposed destiny, which now appears to be nothing but a manipulation by the MIB to give him a loophole.

In fact, this actually helps to explain the loophole, because in a world controlled by feelings of free will, then there IS in actuality a determined path (one where Jacob is not killed, and John doesn’t die), one that CANNOT be radically changed (or at least not without consequences). Conversely, when one’s feelings of “fate” can influence outcomes, then an outsider (MIB) gains the potential to exploit and manipulate this new-found free-will (thus enabling the ability to change the timeline’s outcomes).

This is not to say that the MIB didn’t attempt to meddle with other people’s determined paths, but perhaps this type of meddling only leads to either: an unpredictable or catastrophic outcome (as Eloise has said), or the same outcome (as Daniel has said). It seems that there could be a number of consequences in trying to find a loophole in this situation. This is why he needed John to have a “self-fulfilling prophecy”, because, if John (and everyone else) believes that this is what he’s supposed to do, then that’s what he’ll do. It is unlikely that most other meddling besides this would have resulted in his intended outcomes.

Finally, as an afterthought, maybe Jacob even knew that the other Losties could also work against fate (or this new fate brought on by MIB), as long as “free-will” was allowed to run its course (He just had to give it a few nudges). But of course, we’ll have to wait and see who’s actually working for the greater good here.


To summarize this all more simply, the illusion of free-will can be just as important and powerful as free-will itself. Oppositely, feelings of fate (or even delusions of fate) might be powerful enough to cause one to do things that might even work against their otherwise-determined fate.

I will leave it at that, as I could literally go on all day with this discussion. I haven’t even touched on some other connections that also inspired me to write this, (“Thanks anyway, Plato”) but I’ll see what comments you all have first. My goal was to simplify some of your great ideas, but I fear I have once again only muddled up things worse.