The terminology, premise, and references are sound, but there is an unjustifiably large leap to the conclusion. This entirely ignores the analytical portion of human thought. You can't stretch an anecdote and a few specific research articles to a metaphysical theory, certainly not in a blog post.
Negation of this universal quantifier only needs existential evidence, so I'll attempt to provide one. Say I'm unemployed and watching TV on a Monday afternoon. The thought occurs in my mind that I need to look for a job, but the facticity is setup such that I'm very lazy and unwilling to look for jobs, and the impulse for me is to continue doing what I was doing. A few minutes into it, my brain has analyze the consequences of my action, and I am now at a point where I'm making a choice. The research quote all agrees above that my unconscious brain made the choice initially, and yet there's room for "free will".
I think the problem is the extension of impulse as the basis of all human behavior, leaving no room for analytical thought. You're probably looking for a dialogue here, but unfortunately I've used up all my free time in trying to write this up :) There's no reason to respond, I only want to plant the seed that "lack of free will" theory doesn't hold up. I am sure you can stretch your metaphysics to accomodate my anecdote above, but I'm sure someone else can provide another. I urge you to step outside your thought process and really quantify free will as a result of analytical thought, come up with a different theory, and then reconcile it with the one you've come up with above.
True. What I meant was that free will as we typically consider it -- our _conscious self_ making a decision out of free will is an illusion. As you say:
>my brain has analyze the consequences of my action, and I am now at a point where I'm making a choice
If you differentiate between brain analyzing the consequences, and then _you_ making a decision, that is wrong. Research shows _you_ seem to be making a decision, but actually your brain has already made one. Of course, if you include unconscious neural activity as a conception of self, free will does exist but if only consider self that is conscious of itself, free will doesn't seem to exist.
> my brain can analyze the consequences of my action
>
Very true. I think this is the key component in free-will -- the fact that we can simulate things in our head before making decisions.
We don't put murderers in jail because of their upbringing, but because they simulated the act of killing someone and then went ahead and did it.
______________________________
While we are on the subject, I want to recommend a great source of readings and commentary on consciousness and free will: http://www.consciousentities.com/
Thanks. As I'm sure you've guessed, this was a permissions problem with some of the pages we'd been keeping quiet until the launch. Let us know if you find any more.
Negation of this universal quantifier only needs existential evidence, so I'll attempt to provide one. Say I'm unemployed and watching TV on a Monday afternoon. The thought occurs in my mind that I need to look for a job, but the facticity is setup such that I'm very lazy and unwilling to look for jobs, and the impulse for me is to continue doing what I was doing. A few minutes into it, my brain has analyze the consequences of my action, and I am now at a point where I'm making a choice. The research quote all agrees above that my unconscious brain made the choice initially, and yet there's room for "free will".
I think the problem is the extension of impulse as the basis of all human behavior, leaving no room for analytical thought. You're probably looking for a dialogue here, but unfortunately I've used up all my free time in trying to write this up :) There's no reason to respond, I only want to plant the seed that "lack of free will" theory doesn't hold up. I am sure you can stretch your metaphysics to accomodate my anecdote above, but I'm sure someone else can provide another. I urge you to step outside your thought process and really quantify free will as a result of analytical thought, come up with a different theory, and then reconcile it with the one you've come up with above.