I'm not sure what you mean by "something different than how things work in the universe." If you mean atoms and elements and molecules, no, these things make up everything, icluding the brain and what makes the brain function. Just adding a lightswitch doesn't change much. Ot still performs the same function, just at a predetermined time or setting. It would be more analogous to compare it to a video game, where a character has many programmed responses to stimuli, and the repsonses will be different depending on which stimulus is presented. It would be even more analougous to compare it to artificial intelligence, where it starts out with only programmed responses, but then learns based on its environment and the responses are no longer in the control of the programmer.
The processes aren't the same, but the molecules, atoms, etc. are.
No, I certainly don't believe there is any magic involved. Again, I don't know if the processes are the same, but verything is made up of the same elements as far as we know. This doesn't really have any bearing, though, on whether you can make decisions. If these processes in you brain lead you to be able to decide between two or more options based on how you feel about certain factors, then I would say that is "free will".
I suppose it can, but a brain is not limited to a set of instructions written by a programmer. It learns and changes over time based on its environment. The light, unless someone comes in and changes the setting, will just keep flipping on and off.
To be honest, like I said, on apragmatic level, it seems to me that we obviously make decisions. When you start looking at it on this very detailed, scientific level, I do not know if it would be correct to say that we have free will based on your definition. I think this is the case no matter which worldview you subscribe to, becasue with or without a God, our brains still work the way they do. All we can do is examine it and see if it fits into the definitions we ascribe to things like free will.
{Great post! I'm going to break it up into pieces so the response doesn't become unwieldly}
"...just at a predetermined time or setting."
Yes, determinism begins to enter the picture.
"It would be even more analougous to compare it to artificial intelligence, where it starts out with only programmed responses, but then learns based on its environment and the responses are no longer in the control of the programmer."
Excellent! This is where the 'identical circumstances' comes in... you probably already know this, but two AI's, in identical circumstances, will produce the same 'decision'. The 'identical circumstances', of course,
means that they are both in the same state.
(if you want, we can discuss the 'random' things sometimes put into AI's... they can give the appearance that the AI has free will... I think it would be a facinating discussion, though in the end, I think we would find that the AI's 'decisions' are actually determined by previous states.)
"...I don't know if the processes are the same..."
Do you feel that there is some chance that there are different processes, rules, in your brain than in the rest of the universe?
"This doesn't really have any bearing, though, on whether you can make decisions. If these processes in you brain lead you to be able to decide between two or more options based on how you feel about certain factors, then I would say that is "free will"."
I think it has great bearing. I don't doubt that your brain can make 'decisions'... could your brain make a different decision in identical circumstances? And, maybe I should add, that 'identical circumstances' includes the state of your brain.
"...I do not know if it would be correct to say that we have free will based on your definition."
Well, of course I want to use my definition... if we change the definition part-way into the discussion, then we probably won't really resolve anything. So, now, do you (or anyone here) assert that "...I could decide to go left instead of right without any factor changing"?
[continued next post]