[Clockwork]

Originally Posted by Reikikuro

lets say as a baby, everytime you see a bunny, someone makes a loud surprising noise. After a while you'll expect that noise everytime you see a bunny. That expectation developes into emotion. You become afraid of that disturbance making you afraid of rabbits. That is a programmed reaction in your persona created by your environment.

Kind of like Little Albert, eh? Aye, I too lean heavily towards behaviorism. I agree with Humane; none of us are without a past, none of us lived through a sterile time frame. We live through a chain of causes and effects, and I believe those go so far as to directly influence all of our decisions.

Originally Posted by Jillian

In fate, the future denies free will.
In determinism, the past denies free will.

I'm glad you clarified that; in that case, I'd have to say I'm for determinism, and not fate. Put in that context, fate is a superstition, and completely incompatible. Yet I'm curious:

I believe that with a guided process of self-observation, one can go past his own social indoctrination. When you accept your personality was only the outcome of your circumstances, and try to go past those circumstances, you do change in some aspects.

(You've probably considered this already, but I want to know your thoughts) - if you decided to proceed with this self-examination, wouldn't it have been because events prompted you to do it? For example, you might have done this for the very purpose of establishing your grasp on free will, once you were acquainted with the question of its existence. If you try to get past the circumstances after accepting your personality is only an outcome of them, as you said, aren't you only making the decision based on that acceptance? I don't think you've really escaped it at all. I think strings of variables long in the making led to your decision.

Of course, anything might have prompted the self-observation, but I think you get the idea. Hopefully I've made myself clear.

Originally Posted by d.Nox

In other words: I have free will to the extent that I say of myself "I did X willingly, even though events pushed me to it."

I'm not keen to the idea of it shifting from one to the other, but rather it being both at once. That is, we make the decisions that most appeal to us, based upon the present circumstances.
I think that works. I'm trying to find fallacies with it...