The topic of freewill has taken up a lot of my thinking recently, IMO determinism seems the only logical output of a rational and measured analysis of the physical systems we are made up of and directed by. So therefore I have no idea what experience or input has caused me to read and respond to your post and how I got here. However i'm glad i did thanks. Good book i just read julian baggini freedom regained
"So therefore I have no idea what experience or input has caused me to read and respond to your post and how I got here."
Occam's Razor: The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.
Therefore, the simplest reason I can think of is just, things are the way they are because they were the way they were. :)
That sounds like a really interesting book indeed. Might have to add that to my list.
I'm glad you found yourself here as well. Praise the inputs.
Exactly, agreeing what we mean when we say 'freedom' is primary to understanding if we have it or not. One strong qualifier put forward in his book is that we "could have acted otherwise" in any given situation. A strong case is put forward that we can, and this is driven by our values, beliefs, temperament and conditioning, which can be defined as a degree of freedom.
However I still can't get away from the thought that all of this is dependant on what has gone before.
"Consciousness is just the noise made by the firing of neurons”