Free Will: Fact or Fiction

[Tino]

1. If our will isn't free, what is it? What controls it? Is observed behavior consistent with the proposed controller?

I am thinking you meant to state 'is free.'

No I meant it as written. If our will isn't free, what is it?

I'm not inventing anything new for the definition, just taking the dictionary definition of "will."

1.

the faculty of conscious and especially of deliberate action; the power of control the mind has over its own actions: the freedom of the will.

2.
power of choosing one's own actions: to have a strong or a weak will.

3.
the act or process of using or asserting one's choice; volition: My hands are obedient to my will.

4.
wish or desire: to submit against one's will.

5.
purpose or determination, often hearty or stubborn determination; willfulness: to have the will to succeed.

The neurons would still require some action to make them fire. Drugs and electricity can force thoughts, emotions and actions for which we have empirical data, but the mapping has a loooooong way to go.

The action that fires the neurons comes from the mind through the neural net.

You haven't offered any way to demonstrate the lack of free will. Does your view of it have any practical or demonstrable effect or is this just a thought exercise?

If I am still aware after my death, I will be convinced my awareness is not a part of the biochemical/bioelectric functions of the body and truly have free will. As a side note, it would also change my views on nihilism and a lot of other things, including the possibility of a god. In fact, it would wreck my world. hock:

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I do not believe we can have free will in a godless existence. Free will was the last thing I lost any belief in as I could not find a way to accept free will without accepting a god. I believe free will to be a god=like power.

You lost me here. I don't know what free will has to do with awareness after death or any of the other things you mention. I think we're discussing two different topics.