Do you believe in free will?

[genkaus]

What is we? What are you changing, and what is doing the changing? How is the change accomplished? Maybe your will changes "you". Maybe, that has something to do with you being "your will" (reverse the order if you like).

Me - being the sum of my will, my experiences, my biological makeup etc - is doing the changing of my will, which is a part of me. And, in doing so, I am changing myself. I'm changing my will and by doing so, changing myself in the process.

The author of your actions? I thought we were talking about free will? Is this what free will means to you, being the author of your actions? Well, I concede the argument, by that definition you have free will, you are the author of your actions. I'm not sure what that has to do with free will, but if that's the definition you want to give it, then it's sort of a non-argument, isn't it?

(as has been mentioned, these statements always end up in some sort of dualism)

I think that the problem is that the term "free-will" is so loosely defined, more or less carried as it was coined by religion, that it is difficult to put it in practical terms.

Suppose, in near future, technology develops enough that it is able to map the neural network of human brain completely - down to every neuron firing. Suppose this is then used to map the brain of a person in the process of telling a lie. We see the question being passed from his ears to the brain. We see different sections of the brain (memory, thoughts, rationality etc) firing as he processes the question and we see the final answer (the lie) being issued.

Now a determinist, seeing this in play, would come to the conclusion that at no point was the agent (the liar) was in control of the situation since there were no intermediate events that couldn't be sufficiently explained by prior events. At all times the sequence could be described as one or the other neuron firing and therefore, the agent could not have given any other answer than what he did.

What is being ignored here, in my opinion, is that every neuron that fired was a part of the agent himself. It was a complex and intricate play in which one part directed the other and vice versa, to the extent the result was practically free from the external input. In this case, without the involvement of magical entities such as a soul or spirit or god, we can show the practical expression of free-will.