No, free will is an illusion

2 reasons2 sources

What this position proposes

Our choices are the product of causes we didn't choose, so nobody could have done otherwise and nobody deserves blame or praise in the deep sense.

Reasons

1.
Brain activity that leads to a movement starts before people feel they have decided, so the feeling of choosing comes after the brain has already set things in motion.^[1]
1. Source 1: Wikipedia: Neuroscience of free will · en.wikipedia.orgOpen original
- Supports
  Brain scans have predicted simple choices seconds before people reported making them.^[1]
  1. Source 1: Wikipedia: Neuroscience of free will · en.wikipedia.orgOpen original
Objections
- Yes, our choices aren't fixed in advance · Overstated
  The early buildup may just be random neural noise, not a hidden decision. These experiments don't show the choice was made unconsciously.^[1]
  1. Source 1: Schurger, Sitt & Dehaene (2012): An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movement, PNAS 109(42) · digitalcommons.chapman.eduOpen original
- Yes, free will fits a caused world · Leaves something out · Unsourced · Source requested by 1 reader
  Flicking a wrist at a random moment isn't the kind of choice anyone argues about. Deciding whether to take a job involves deliberation these studies never measure.
2.
Every event, including a decision, is either caused by earlier events or happens by chance.
Neither one gives you control, so free will has nowhere to fit.
Unsourced
Objections
- Yes, our choices aren't fixed in advance · Leaves something out · Unsourced
  That leaves out a third option: the person as a whole, rather than any single prior event, being the cause of the choice.

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