Your "Free" Will is Not Free

[Jay520]

robzo100 said:

Well I'll give you mine I guess.  Lack fo control to me means freedom (My other post).  I agree with everything you said, but would ascribe it to being free rather than a lac of free will.  People who are free are people who are able to be influenced by outside factors.  To be free is to have the ability to have one's direction changed in an instant by an outside force (It's not really a "decision making power").

Will, is the power to have that effect on other people - to influence the direction of others.  You say you have no control because your fate is determined by external forces all the time, but you have that exact effect on OTHER people all the time - you change the fate of others.  For example, giving a gift to someone, giving money, beating someone up, convincing someone in argument, etc...

In other words, we are exercising our will all the times when we affect the fate of something, and we exert our freedom all the times when we allow ourselves to swayed in some manner.  If you care to understand this in depth more you would have to at least see my earlier post as well which is fairly short I think.  Essentially, freedom is what makes life undetermined, and will is what makes it determined.  Also, some people like to be free, and others not so much.  Same goes for having will.

That's why I tried not to use the term "free will" in my post. It's a very loosely defined term and can cause people to disagree even if they believe in the same thing.