those final choices you are talking about can't be considered exclusive of previous influences. When an individual faces options, the choice he makes has to be somehow influenced by an occurrence of the past, or a specific knowledge or some other influence he/she has come across at some given point in time. So in essence freewill is more like influenced will that looks like freewill just simply because it is not being directly imposed on the individual. If we consider all indirect, passive influences, we'd realise that all will is influence at some level in various ways. If an individual Can be said to be a sum total of his influences like environment, knowledge base, etc and all that contributes in shaping his psyche how then can we say his choices could be void of influences? I think not
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@babysteve you have a good grasp on the idea of determinism. Very well said.
You both raise some good points though. I've posted part II of this article, if you are interested. I would like to hear more of your thoughts on the subject :)