Do you believe in free will?

[Reforged]

I've ignored it so far, but conscience means "awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together". Consciousness means "A sense or awareness of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs". Since the subject of discussion is not morality, I'm assuming that your intended term was the latter all along. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Now, my primary issue here is absence of any standards set-up to determine what you mean by non-material. As I said before, conceptual fields such as logic and math are non-material as well as supposed entities such as souls, spirits, angels etc. These areas are qualitatively different and unless you specify what kind of non-material you are referring to and the resulting confusion contributes to error with regards to the subject.

Now, if metaphysically your premise had been the former - that consciousness is a conceptual abstract - then my argument would be that it is not free from material determinism. If its the latter, I'd simply say - baloney.

The non-material subject I am referring to incorporates the aspects of both the conscience and consciousness - it is simply that which gives us awareness - let's call it the mind to avoid further confusion. The mind which I am presenting is not a conceptual abstract, rather it is what creates the conceptual abstracts. The mind governs our interactions with reality in so much as it is the only way in which we can perceive and act in correlation with what we 'know' to exist and be true.

This mind is that which allows our existence in a material construct. It is not the material construct which allows for the existence of the mind. As we perceive the material world, a brain is necessary to carry the mind, but without the mind our identity would be null and void. It is what separates us, as identities, from the material world (and all of its attributes).

What is my justification for these assertions? What evidence do I have to support my premises? Can I be sure that I am correct?

If the mind is that which gives us awareness, then what are we being aware of? Surely it must be the material world as it exists around us, but what then of differing perceptions of existence? It cannot be valid that we both perceive the material world differently if only the material world exists (objectively and determined for everyone). What then allows for this? The mind offers an alternative to this dilemma. If we have differing perceptions of the material world as it exists, then perhaps it is not as objective as once thought. Perhaps reality is merely a conceived notion which may or may not match the 'true' material world closely.

I do not doubt that the material world exists, but I cannot justify that it is objective, or that it 'exists' as I perceive it after my mind ceases... Where does this take the discussion as it relates to free will? If the mind creates the material world as we (as identities) perceive it, then surely we (as identities) can affect it without being confined to our perceptions - thus the idea of free will.

Possible scenario for the existence of free will via the non-material conscience:
1. There are non-material subjects which exist
2. The mindis a non-material subject
3. The non-material can interact with the material (while remaining outside of the determinism of the non-material)
4. If there is interaction between the mindand the brain, then free will exists
5. There is interaction between the mindand the brain
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4. Free will exists

Depending upon the qualities you assign to the non-material, your error would be in 3. (abstractions cannot remain outside material determinism) or in 1. (No, they don't).

Very simple multiple choice question for both of you, are the electrical impulses in our brains material or non-material?