@Night Ripper,
I've never believed that these two philosophies are mutually exclusive.
Yes I believe that all decisions we make are a product of variables (needs, wants, experience, values, ideological interpretations, how breakfast is settling, psyche, perceptional filters, bias, etc.). But I also believe that each decision I make, regardless of the fact that it has constituent causal elements, was still 'free will'. Why? Because despite the fact that my preferences have been caused, influenced or steered, I still made the choice.
I think this whole question is an example of what I call semantic blur; wherein concepts at play
seem to be in dispute, yet no one can verbally nail-down what that contradiction might be. It may seem counter intuitive, but the wise skeptic doesn't take that as 'good enough'. In other words,
if our decisions are a product of other components, and there is something called 'free will' that's distinctly separate, what might that be? Even if we go as left-field as possible, and proclaim this to be a naturally or god-created 'soul'; even so, such was created with innate propensities and therefore, again, subject to certain proclivities. If we say this 'soul' was created through some natural process; again, it was created with naturally-imbued characteristics and again, becomes yet another part of the 'determined' equation.
So either there is no such thing as free will, or that we make decisions
based on these causal factors that are distinctly 'us'
. In order to be "free", must something be random? If so, it's not free - it's random. If its not random, it's subject to variables (i.e., determined); thus, the whole question pro ports a seeming contradiction where none truly exists.
No, even though my decisions (and other manifestations of my will) may be a soup of variables, that doesn't mean I didn't make them. If this follows, then
the whole question of Free Will and Determinism is a false-quandary.
I'm still thinking this through; but something smells fishy here. Comments and criticisms are welcome
Thanks