Idea
The Pun Tyrant
Well, because what is oneself is the essence of the argument. You cannot say if there is or isn't free will if you cannot tell apart what is you and what is something that is just part or exterior to yourself.Forgive me, those were weasel words. I meant, in essence, that there may be other factors I wasn't considering, but that those would still fall under the law of cause and effect. I'm firmly convinced that your "will" (If you mean what I think you mean by that) is as governed by the laws of cause and effect as anything else, and that everything happens because of something else that we don't have control over. As for the bit questioning what "you" or "I" am, I fail to see how that's relevant. Nor do I know what sense you mean "you" in. Do you mean my immutable essence (which doesn't exist) or my occupation (for the record, I'm a bit of a dilettante) or my qualifications to make such sweeping statements? Or something else?
Though I think that you ended up answering my question regardless. You appear to believe in a very restricted self (whose logical consequences you probably ignore but that's an issue for another day), of the kind which changes and is, I assume, bound entirely by the physical world. I would still argue that even assuming this, free will is not out of the question, but you don't seem to have the willingess to put your ideas to the test, so I won't try you.
However, before I go, I would like to point an example of what i am referring to. Let's assume for the sake of argument that you are your brain. This means that all of the processes in your brain are your processes. Free will does not demand a particular form of decision-making. So the hormones, the sinapses, the sensory interpretation even if all of that is arranged in a certain way, because it is you, all of that is just a form of free will. If you are your brain , the only way to not have free will is for your body to make all it's decisions without your brain once interviening.