(April 12, 2012 at 11:41 am)Perhaps Wrote: Just because we are effected by our past, doesn't necessarily mean that we don't have control over our future decisions. If the waffles make you salivate more so than the pancakes, it does not follow that you are required to eat the waffles - which is what a world without free will would necessitate. The world may be determinate in nature, yet still provide us with the ability to make decisions based on arbitrary whims (this position is known as compatibilism).
This is just confused thinking. Unless something magical is making the final decision, there is only mechanism. And by their nature, mechanisms are deterministic (in that identical inputs will produce identical outputs). The "us" in the last sentence is no different from suggesting there is an invisible homunculus making choices for "us" or a "soul" or some other supernatural thing.
This is your choice: either (as all the evidence strongly suggests) the brain is a mechanism; or it's Magic Pixies. Compatibilism? Magic Pixies powered by Handwavium.
