[ExI] Free Will vs. Determinism

[Kevin H]

I think one mistake to make on this question is to suppose that it's a
metaphysical (or, in some contexts, religious) question.  The problem of
free will isn't going to be solved by armchair speculation.  Rather, it's a
scientific question: the question being, how do we explain human volition?
It's a problem of neuroscience and what we need is a lot research in how the
brain works.

But, we can at least define the problem.  At any moment, we can conceive
multiple courses of action that we can take, yet we only actually *take* one
of them.  What determines our chosen course of action?  The answer that it
is our volition or will that determines our course of action really isn't
sufficient, because volition isn't a clear and distinct idea.  Rather, it is
at best a placeholder for an explanation: it's a word we use to signify an
explanation that is missing.  The free will problem can be summed up as the
question: what exactly is the will?

Best regards,

*Kevin*
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