Is free will real?

[Mudhammam]

Your passion in arguing for the existence of table-tops is pursuasive.

You have not, however, told me whether you think any of the abstractions which define human exprience should be considered real. What about love, beauty, value and meaning? Are they real, or just illusions?

Yes, they are real because they correlate to real phenomena in which our beings experience fluctuating physical states and term any slightest difference under concepts such as love, beauty, value, etc. This is, of course, due in large part to memories, that is, a capacity to look backwards into the past and forwards into the future, following "mental signposts" (sticking out from the "dirt" of biochemical processes) that guide us in our immediate environment.

And if they are illusions, should we not seek to dismiss them from consideration in living our lives? But wait. . . doesn't "should" itself imply free will? Does that mean that I'm deterministically bound to consider thinking that love, beauty, value and meaning have. . . meaning? Urk!

You are deterministically bound to the extent that you find the strongest reason affecting your disposition towards one or the other... hopefully one of those determinants is this post.