Great question! This is much better than the usual all-or-nothing debate.
We generally encounter two types of forces: Free Will and Determinism, and you experience both every day. Take drinking water, for example, it feels like a choice, but it’s really a form of Determinism. If you don’t, you’ll die in three days. But you do feel the pull of Free Will when deciding between water, coffee, or tea in the morning. Whether those choices are truly free or predetermined, they certainly feel like Free Will.
Take the case of an active addict. It’s almost certain they’ll use again within the next day or two—an example of determinism in action. The compulsion feels inevitable, driven by biological and psychological forces. Yet, there are moments where the addict might feel a glimmer of choice, a brief window where Free Will seems possible. This tension between feeling trapped and sensing freedom is where the debate really plays out.
Whether Free Will exists or is simply a product of particle flow remains an open question. Yet, the daily experience of living—feeling both the freedom of surfing a wave and the helplessness of being swept along by a flash flood—captures the tension between choice and fate in a way that is undeniably part of life.