Is free will real?

[bennyboy]

I want to point out the difference between big-r "Reality" and reality as we live it. The line isn't sensibly drawn at free will: everything we think, feel and experience is real in its own context, and unreal in a more global context. In my life, for example, Mom and apple pie are images of comfort. My childhood mother was hugs, support, softness, a nice smell-- safety. In the context of the life of a child, those are pretty much the most real things that exist. In the context of physical reality, of course, Mom is a complex bundle of nerves. She loves me because her brain is wired, via her DNA, to love. She provides support because she has the instinct to do so. She smells good to me because I, in turn, am programmed to experience whatever chemicals are oozing from her pores as pleasant. Every force that caused her to treat me like a special little snowflake is, in fact, evidence that I am not one-- and neither is anyone else.

The guy cutting in front of me in traffic is really a prick. In the context of my life, my world view, and my experiences, he's clearly a dysfunctional, willful, asshole, who's decided that it's his job to insult me, to disregard the rules of safety that give me comfort when driving, etc. However, in the context of physical reality, he too is a bundle of nerves, not importantly different than the bundle of nerves I call Mom. His brain functions almost identically, and is equally deterministic, DNA-based, and instinct-driven.

So let's not draw the line at free will. Does humanity exist as anything more than a biological robot? Does the self exist? Does meaning, in any form, really exist? I contend that free will exists at least as much as any of the other things we consider concrete aspects of human life. It has to-- because all those concepts are tied into the instinctive understanding of free will. You don't get to throw out the baby unless you're willing to give up the bathwater as well, if you'll pardon me for abusing that metaphor.