Yes, we have free will. It is quite easily observable.
However, if you place the constrains of "Modern Materialistic Science" you cannot prove or disprove free will.
This is not an issue of free will, it is a problem of "Modern Materialistic Science". It literally defines the experience as unproveable. It even defines it as unstudiable.
"Modern Materialistic Science" separated physics from metaphysics.
And thus, you cannot use scientific analysis on the occurrence of free will.
Further, i could make an even more solid sounding case for there not being any free will.
I can show you many lives, and all the choices that that person could/would make basically work out the same. Imagine plotting a life path in 3D. each stream of light a path, each choice a divergence, splitting of paths. And when we look at most people's lives up close, it looks kinda like a log with no branches.
When we look at it further away, it looks like a straight line.
However, given this analogy, there are many people who have a log with a branch, or several branches.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the matter @builderofcastles!
Certainly the e-motion of "free-will" is "easily observable".
However, your e-motion has no basis in your conscious decision making process.
(IFF) you PLAN to do something (THEN) your PLAN must be CAUSED by some desire.
Your WILL is a measure of your ability to PLAN.
Your WILL is a slave to your DESIRE.
Your WILL is not "free".
Sorry, you have made the fallacy of which i have spoken just above.
You try to apply the scientific method of "modern materialistic science" to this, and of course, you get this conclusion.
In this, you are assuming time is linear and that the cause is before the effect.
Neither assumption is correct, and will lead you to a faulty conclusion.
(further, to talk about free will, we must talk about the now, and how it can affect the future and the past)
I would say that your will is closer to your ability to desire.
This is patently not true.
You see, there is a spot, a silence before the storm, where you can make a change in outcome.
Just after the incident, and just before your emotional response.
Every yogi knows this spot and makes use of it to change their lives.
Of course, this is all in the realm of metaphysics... so it is denied by "modern materialistic physics"
From where i stand, i can clearly see the effect of free will.
Which "framework" do you believe makes "free-will" a coherent concept?
I'm 100% onboard with "blocktime" and "non-linear causality" and all that, but NONE of these frameworks "fix" "the problem".
Once again, I know exactly what you're talking about.
Yes, this is the "best" vantage-point from which to "choose your path" (so-to-speak).
HOWEver, this "quiet-place" is not "without desire".
This "quiet-place" is not "fully-neutral".
This "quiet-place" is somewhat insulated from the "immediate storm" of "this moment".
What you are in this "quiet-place" is still the amalgam of your "life-experience" and your "biology" (including your "instincts").
The "you" that is calm and quiet "inside yourself" is still shaped by your past.
The "you" that is calm and quiet "inside yourself" is still a slave to DESIRE.
The "you" that is calm and quiet "inside yourself" still wants something.
The "you" that is calm and quiet "inside yourself" still has a goal.
And although that goal may be more subtle and more "noble", it's still compelling you to act.
And compelled action is not "free".