So I dont believe in free will ,through a combination of experience and events in my life(most to do with leaving religion) however like most, I recognise the need for the concept of free will, as artificial as it may be
But where to draw the line. Obviously, even for people that believe in free will, where they draw there line is different among each other e.g across cultures, generation and among individual, but what do you do when you know that line is just artificial.
For example, alots people say that trauma doesn’t excuses abuse, only contextualise, it but if you have statical evidence that a large or even most of abusers have been abused/been through a traumatic event that is by defined an excuse.
see to me this is conflating free will with being. You made your decision because of who you are. You got chocalate ice cream because you like chocolate ice cream. You stay out of the sun because your fair skinned. Sometimes though people feel like a change and don’t choose their favorite and want to try something or are to engaged with something and get a sunburn. Its basically saying because choices made are influenced by who you are you have no free will. I sometimes use the term effective free will but honestly to me its kinda a back and forth. The person you are come from the decisions you make and decisions you make are influneced by the person you are. Everyone has experiences with decisions that could have went the other way. To me the fact we make the decisions is free will. Even if there are reasons and events behind them. We made the choice and the choice could have been different.