First of all, I apologize for the extended absence. Other aspects of life were hoarding my attention and the situation, I hope, is becoming rectified.
I have been squirreling away a bunch of good articles, but they all need some love in order to be presentable. I want to start with a good recap, or rehash of "Ex Inanis" so far. You know, like ... "The Story So Far."
So, you think free will doesn't exist, or isn't absolute, eh? You think that perhaps you are the sum total of your parts -- that you are like a calculator and the variables of your life just add up -- your decisions output in perfect order? Mayhaps you think that your life feels like it is scripted, or that there are forces who have a hand in your pie.
"But Macil! Its true. You can't convince me. It is all determined! One state informs the next state, one feeling, one thought, like a row of domino's. You are powerless before this unfolding of events. You are just a complicated chemical reaction!"
You poor deluded fool. Let me instruct you on how wrong you are.
I want to point out that you are able to observe the forces that seemingly impact your decisions -- or result in your decisions -- which should give you a clue. The fact that you can observe them should give you immediate pause.
Or perhaps you haven't ever considered that "something" is observing all of this activity unfold for you to even talk or complain about? In which case that alone would be quite the revelation. If you "see from something other than your eyes", then is someone other than you controlling this "force of observation?" "What" exactly has the time to complain or contemplate that it doesn't have free will?
It could be said that the world is at a precipice between those who are falling into determinism (physicalism) and free will (anything freaking