Unending free will debate

Well of course there is no soul; I keep forgetting that this is what Westerners think when you assert mind and body.  Out of body arises mind, but it has its own being, not as a thing but as a process -- the proverbial "chain of consciousness."  When we sit quietly (this is in fact a popular form of meditation) and "watch" ourselves (that can be misleading because what you are looking at is very recent short-term memories), we can see how the process flows.

Where or how free will arises I don't know, but I tend to take it as an assumption necessary for almost any philosophical knowledge and for any assumption of values.  Plus I am quite sure I can ascertain when I am mindfully exercising it and when, as is most of the time done for efficiency, I am just going with the flow.


I don't disagree with how what I say "sounds," especially to a materialist ear.  It is all inferential; I am persuaded I have the ability to exercise genuine choices, but of course it is impossible to prove that what I think has been an actual mindful choice on my part is not in reality just another aspect of my personalty that I don't notice, no matter how careful I am.  I really, truly find that too much of a stretch, that I am more aware of myself than that, but it remains a possibility.

Here is the rub: if we deny free will and assume some sort of determinism either by a deity or by mechanical processes, or maybe some sort of random choice at the quantum level (which would no more be free will than a classical deterministic process), then we enter a pointless universe and there is no point in even talking about it.  It's similar to the solipsist: there is no point having a discussion with such a person since only he or she exists and is in effect talking to itself.

Three take-aways:  first, I and most people think they have free will and we construct our society and most of our philosophy on that assumption, second, it is not hard to carry out introspective tests to convince oneself the mindful use of actual choice is possible, and, third, without free will as an operating assumption we only talk in circles.