A Sense of Free Will: the consciousness quagmire (Introduction)

by romansh , Friday, November 13, 2015, 00:21 (3080 days ago) @ dhw

dhw “The ability to act or make choices independently of the environment and the universe” or “independently of cause” defines free will out of existence.
I addressed this at least to some extent in my last post. This is false for the person who believes in contra causal or libertarian free will. This would be accurate for those of us who believe in cause and effect.-> dhw I have offered a different definition (“the ability to make conscious choices within given constraints”, which you have misrepresented by equating compatibilist “coercion” with “given constraints” - not the same thing at all), but for you any other definition is inaccurate. 
I may have got the wrong end of the stick here. But having said that what are the "given constraints"? Also I keep saying coercion is irrelevant to me, but you keep bringing it back up.-> dhw Cause and effect is your chosen approach,
Not just mine ... this is the basis of the determinism debate.
Compatibilism and some forms of libertarism say ultimately that determinism is somehow irrelevant to the debate. Are you suggesting that determinism is somehow irrelevant to the debate?-
> dhw According to my definition, you may be right, but it also allows for other approaches in defence of free will.-Actually I find your definition to a large extent defines free will into existence.
Do we make decisions? Plainly yes.
Are we conscious? For what you regard as consciousness (being aware and being able to explain a decision) the answer would be yes.