[Longwow]

more info than you want concerning the phenomenon of will.

the proper answer to the question: "is there freedom of the will" might be that of yes and no. it all depends upon the perspective.

in respects to a freewill choice the natural question should come up, "just what caused the will's choice?"

caused it! ah, there's the rub! free will is something supposedly floating around untouched by influences... free to strike out without any strings attached.

the reformist, martin luther wrote a treatise on the characteristics of the will in response to the great scholar erasmus who had levied a work upholding the concept of free will in contrast to martin luther's ideology. martin's devastating counter-argument consisted of "on the bondage of the will" -- aspects of that work have remained unanswered down through the centuries.

for our purposes, what it boils down to is this: yes, the will is indeed free in its motion of self-determination, but the will itself is in bondage to the underlying nature of the individual. so, the acts of the will have a cause behind its action, which are not suprisingly found residing in what we think of as the "heart".

so, perhaps a more accurate description of relatively free acts of self-determination would be that of "heart will" rather than the baggage-loaded, indeterministic term, "free will".

all of this reminds me of the trick question that has no suitable answer from an innocent one. question: "have you stopped beating your wife yet?" "yes, of course..! i mean, no...ahhh, hmm. wait just a sec here!!...."

best, billybobbutterball esq.