(April 12, 2012 at 9:21 pm)Thomas Kelly Wrote: It's true that we don't know how exactly the brain works, but decision making is basically weighing the options in relation any giving thing, and to self. Free will would mean that you are not bound to the limited options available. Hence the emphasis on "free".. As in not limited or bound.. Now regarding decision making, can you make a choice on a fork in the road you have no knowledge of. How do you cognitively choose left or right if you have no information that left or right exists, or what left or right would mean to you in terms of choice. Hence, it's pretty hard to choose a path cognitively without any information on what it is you are supposed to make a cognitive choice on.
We are limited both in our physiology and mental capacity. This narrows down the margin of "free-will". That margin further decreases with "circumstance" and "genetics". Then theres various other factors that contribute from what food you eat to what air you breathe. All of these have some small effect on us. If some type of genius were to accurately record *all* factors and comprehend their effect then it is possible they would be able to calculate what decision you would make in any given situation. Is that an indicator of free-will?
As it stands we have scant information at best about how we actually form our decisions. Without that information you cannot possibly make a statement backing free-will with any weight behind it.
