How Does Baron d'Holbach on Hard Determinism: There is no free will Work?

Baron d’Holbach believed that everything happens because of causes we can’t see, like a machine that’s always running and never stops.

Imagine you’re playing with your favorite toy car on the floor. You push it, and it goes zooming forward. But what if someone told you that you weren’t really pushing it, the car just had to go because of how it was made? That sounds weird, right?

That’s kind of what Baron d’Holbach thought about free will. He said we don’t choose things like we think we do. Everything we do, like picking a red crayon instead of blue, is just the result of all the little causes inside us: our thoughts, feelings, and even the way we were raised.

So if you're thinking about going to play outside instead of staying home, it’s not really up to you. It’s more like your brain made that choice because of what happened before.

Think of your brain as a clockwork toy, all gears and springs working together. Every time something happens, it's just the gears turning exactly how they were meant to. There's no real choice, only cause and effect, like when you push the button on your toy car, and it goes forward every single time.

So, in Baron d’Holbach’s world, free will is just an illusion, like thinking you're pushing your toy car when really, it was always going to move.