If free will was not real

[The Grand Nudger]

I think you know that referencing experts to support one's claims isn't an appeal to authority. And this was direct response to the skepticism you expressed in post #479 as to whether frontal lobes grant the property of human will.

You doin;t reference the experts -to establish your claim- you referencied a popularizing artcile that uses the same words, that was -about- people studying something that they do not, themselves, establish or even attempt to establish as "free" in any more than the colloquial sense.  

Pendantic enough to distinguish between the stipulative freedom of compatibilism and the contra-causal freedom of libertarianism. All you're saying is that our way of defining "free will" is different than the way libertarians define it. True, that. So what?

So what, indeed.  

That's what legalism gets us. Kicking people to death instead of shooting them. Hooray for rules of engagement. War is hell, there's no denying it and no avoiding it, as long as someone out there is itching to wage one.

Then maybe pointing to legalism (as you have) as an avenue for free will isn't such a good idea either? I wouldn;t make such an argument (as an argument to consequence) but obviously it resonates with you...  

Being free from duress/coercion is a real property that human beings can have. To define language in such way as to permit distinctions that obtain on a regular basis (having legal autonomy vs. not having legal autonomy) rather than defining freedom of the will in terms of something that is at best a speculative plausibility and at worst incoherent is hardly a semantic game of hide and seek. It's just good linguistics.

You -aren't- free from duress or coercion.  You are sometimes free from some kinds of duress or coercion...and that's being -incredibly- generous and not strictly factual. It's good linguistics, agreed, but bad logic. I'm not looking for a way to -say- we have free will...I can do that, it's trivially easy to do that...and I;m two hairs away from a chimpanzee. I'm looking for some -actual- free will.