As I’m continually finding myself discussing the subject of free will with people recently, I created this flowchart to better explain my perspective on the issue.
If you have rebuttals and answers to the questions I pose on the negative side of the chart, please contribute them here in the LOTU forum.
Sorry Cam, tried to read this flowchart by copying it to picture manager and resizing but it’s too blurry to make out. Anywhere I can get a readable version? BTW, enjoyed your most recent Advaita show with Mr Witt, no fundamentalism in sight! Thanks
James, when you click on the flowchart it should bring up the large image. Anyway, get it here:
http://www.gliffy.com/pubdoc/1412140/L.jpg
Your flow chart, seems to me, that it assumes that the activity of the brain is a closed system. Whereas the brain has all kinds of stimulii interacting with it thru our senses. These stimulii impose new processes which the brain needs to integrate and thus able to CHANGE the course of an ongoing chemical process.
ALL THE BEST..eugeno
Hi Eugeno, the flow chart certainly isn’t trying to make that assumption at all. Of course the brain isn’t a closed system and yes, external stimuli “enters” the brain through a variety of chemical processes which, in turn, react with the chemical processes in the brain. But all of these events are governed by the laws of chemistry and therefore there remains no room for any such thing as ‘free will’.