Micro-fates

I do not think this page should be deleted. This concept was presented at a major international conference and published by the Metanexus Institute. It should warrant the short entry here.
Micro-fates is a recent concept that reconciles determinism and freewill. Though there are causes for everything human beings do, the ability to see alternate possibilities allows people to choose. So, even though countless subconscious and external causes may determine why we make a choice, some people have the foresight to see the whole gambit of possibilities. The idea of “micro-fates” reconciles the deterministic aspect of human behavior (due to the irrefutable fact that there are external causes that impact our choices) with freewill as the ability to see alternate possibilities. Knowing that alternates outcomes are possible implies choice, for despite the fact that causal forces beyond an agent’s control may dictate the decisions made, that agent recognizes that whatever decision he or she makes is not the only one possible.
A micro-fate is therefore when an individual is guided by causes (biological, social, circumstantial, etc.) and these causes influence the decision he or she ultimately makes. That decision seals his or her fate for a certain amount of time, but only up until the next moment of choice. Each moment of choice presents a new opportunity to decide between different alternate possibilities. So, even though a person’s choice may be genuinely determined by causes beyond his or her conscious control, a person can recognize that he or she could possibly make various choices.
This freewill argument posits human beings are morally accountable for their actions. Since human beings can see alternate possibilities, they can recognize that the causes for their actions do not delimit only one choice. If one can see the alternate possibilities, then one implicitly chooses to act as he or she was determined to act due to external causes. If one cannot see the alternate possibilities, then the person being condemned is nothing more than the sum of his or her actions and therefore only actions are being morally evaluated.

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