Is Free Will an Illusion?

[FarCenter]

24. The alternative is not predestination, but rather that the unconscious makes most of the decisions

The evidence suggests that we unconsciously arrive at decisions before we become consciously aware of having made them. This is contrary to the free will idea that we use our minds to consciously decide.

It not actually predestination, since prior experience and learnings condition the unconscious. Predicting the condition of the unconscious and how a decision will be taken a few weeks from now for an individual is probably like predicting the weather -- it can't be done because there are too many non-linear and probabalistic phenomena involved.

The "free won't" idea (see below) is probably consistent with the conscious mind exercising some executive function to censor the "proposed" decision bubbling up from the unconscious. This is probably one of the functions of the prefrontal cortex.