If free will was not real

[bennyboy]

What you don't understand is it doesn't matter at all who you define yourself as or what you define yourself as. To work in your favor let's say you are your brain and your brain makes decisions, alright? Keep in mind we never said decisions and such doesn't exist, just that it isn't ultimately free. You're definitely confusing capabilities with free will.

Will has nothing to do with decisions, at least as I define it. It has to do with intent.

Yes, in a sense, in your imagination you were capable of taking chocolate instead of strawberry however it was only possible for you to pick the one you picked because the decision was made in your neural net (it doesn't matter if you define yourself as your neural net) and your neural net is causal. I want to add as a reminder that if the universe is indeterministic then it's partly random and there are no choices in randomness. However, this will make the previous statement irrelevant; the brain isn't quantum, the brain is governed by classical physics and classical physics is causal/deterministic so randomness is ruled out. Therefore the only possibility is that the brain is causal, it is a part of the causal chain. It is irrelevant if the universe isn't completely causal, the only effect that has in this context is that we're causal (maybe with occassional butterfly effects from randomness that are irrelevant because they don't allow free will) beings and the universe we live in isn't determined but free will still doesn't exist.

You can apply all this thinking to every aspect of personhood, not only free will. The sense of self is also an illusion, and even consciousness itself can be thought of that way-- just a byproduct of brain function. Even a solid surface exists only as an idea. But these are all things which are part of human existence, and pretending they're not there is like saying, "Sand shouldn't exist. . . so all that sandy stuff out there is bullshit!"

But this isn't a very interesting view of reality. My view is based on experience, not on an interpretation of a model of the universe. I go out, walk around, and do whatever seems good according to my nature.

Now the importance of what I've stated is important for my question. I've asked this several times in another thread but you and the others that believe that free will exists turned a blind eye to it, I got no response. Question is, can you break the causal chain with your brain/free will, or in other words can you break the causal chain (since you define yourself as your brain) and if so, how do you break the chain?

It's a strange question to ask me, since I've never asserted that free will means breaking the causal chain. My terms have been well defined, I think, so asking me to answer on your terms is a little pointless.