How does the concept of always making what is believed to be the best decision moves beyond the debate between free will and determinism?
The concept of making what is believed to be the best decision moves beyond the theoretical debate between free will and determinism by demonstrating that alternative realities are logically impossible under either model.
Because humans cannot know the ultimate nature of Reality, we cannot definitively prove whether the universe operates entirely on strict determinism (where every event is just the effect of a previous cause) or if free will actually exists. However, we argue that we do not need to resolve this unanswerable debate because the practical outcome is identical either way.
Here is how making what is believed to be the best decision transcends the debate:
The Inevitability of the what is believed to be the Best Choice: Even if we assume the existence of a decision-maker with absolute “free will” operating entirely outside the laws of physics, that person will always evaluate their options and select what they believe is the single best possible decision among their available options.
Decisions are Constrained by the Present State: The options available to any decision-maker are intrinsically pre-determined by their specific knowledge, abilities, and perception at the exact time the decision is made. For example, in a chess game, a beginner knows only a few options, while a grandmaster knows thousands; yet, in every scenario, the player will always evaluate their specific set of known options and select the single one they believe is best, even if that decision ultimately leads to losing.
Free Will Behaves Deterministically: Because a person will always make the choice they believe to be the single best option in that moment, there is ultimately only one possible choice allowed. Consequently, even if a universe fully allowed for free will, the universe would still behave in a completely deterministic way.
Ultimately, whether a choice is dictated by an unbroken chain of cause and effect (determinism) or chosen by an independent mind (free will), the logic of making what is believed to be the best decision proves that ex post (after the fact), alternative realities could never have existed. The person always executed the only choice they believed best at the time.
By bypassing the theoretical debate and establishing that alternative realities are logically impossible, this concept provides a highly practical benefit. It actively dismantles “should stories”—the flawed belief that things “should” or “could” have gone differently. Once you realize that no alternative reality was ever possible under any model of the universe, all regret and mental suffering tied to past choices completely disappear.