Welcome to Philforum. I look forward to discussing this topic with you, even though I might take a different approach or position.
It is, at any rate, both an important question and problem, as well as one with a very long history.
Regards,
John

Hi there innocent,

Lots of Free Will threads on the forum. Looking forward to talking with you.

Rich

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum, innocent. If you are interested in determinism and free-will, you may have come to the right place as that seems like a very hot topic around this neck of the Interweb Woods.

I come more from a school of radical free-will. Determinism is a failure to see the absolute potential in any sort of confrontation or crisis. Most determinists fail to see probabilities, and thus, have no understanding of the chaos that is necessary for those seemingly deterministic outcomes to come into fruition. But I digress, because I tend to stay out of the whole debate. I thought I would give you a little food for thought before you hit the forums.

Hi Theatetus,

Thanks for the welcome. I find the issue of determinism and free will totally fundamental, because it has such a profound effect on how we view the world, ourselves, and each other.

Let's say we accept that quantum indeterminism is a reality and determinism is therefore not what governs our choices. We are then faced with an indeterminate randomness that also prohibits free will.

Nature likes to have fun with us. For example, anyone would swear that our world is perfectly motionless, yet our planet hurtles around the Sun at about 660,000 miles per hour. There are various other grand illusions I'm sure you can think of. Also, the very fabric of reality, time and space, transcend reason; how could there never have been a beginning and how could our universe stretch out infinitely? Given that context, that nature has first compelled us to view our wills as free and now compels us to consider mounting evidence that this view is an illusion seems somewhat easier to accept.

Still, as long as most philosophers tend to be compatibilists who believe that determinism is real, but we still have free will, the debate rages on until we are compelled to reach consensus.

Hello innocent, determinism is the side to take. I love how it smacks any external God in the face, even if that is subject to criticism.