Do We Have Free Will or Is Everything Predetermined?

if you determine free will as our motivations being totally free from external factors, then we have no free will. If you determine free will as not having our future predetermined from the day we were born, then we have free will. The actual definition of free will (if there is one) is going to be a lot less robust. and lie somewhat in between the 2 definitions

To explain free will you use the argument "choice of environment = free will". This, however, doesn't make any sense.
One thing you fail to mention regarding this socalled choice of environment, is wether or not this choice is free. If the choice of environment is predetermined then of course it doesn't give you free will. If the choice of environment is free then you had free will to begin with and then you've explain absolutely NOTHING with "choice of environment = free will".

we born slaves of our instincs impulses free will is not a thing that we born with it is a state of sprituallity that we have to obtain free will means to have choices and to have those choices you need khowledge and even at that point you still slave it is just the begining of the journey

Clearly everything is governed by forces out of our control. Just as example "how do you make your eyes blue?" Doesn't matter if you say that you don't do it or that you don't know how. Who we are isn't at all what we feel we are. Just as our decisions aren't actually ours like we feel. The illusion of such is that one thing he is talking about. The illusion of free will! There is no other director of creativity but you. But unless you aren't in the illusion you wont even be able to "be"

I think there could be a "bliss" in accepting both positions at once. They are like a yin-yang symbol spinning fast enough to blur out the individual shapes. Knowledge and ignorance becoming equally awesome to possess.

I feel that 100%, it's the "nondualistic" point of view, accepting both of them as One as well as the ultimate Truth. In the end, even the dualities of Yin and Yang blend into the One.

A good vid for helping children learn the value of choosing the right friends; but one doesn't really choose ones friends, they choose you -- at least that has been my experience.

In reality determinism is what allows us to make sense of things and act accordingly. Without it, everything would be chaos, there would be no reason to punish or reward people - because we'd have no reason to think there would be any connection between environmental stimuli and subsequent choices. Whether the universe is deterministic to its core or not - meaningful freedom and rational choice can only exist to the extent determinism is true.

Viewed from an agent's perspective of course.

"It is not only entirely speculative -- it's bad speculation."

So is libertarian free will. It's a self contradictory idea that effectively claims that the opposite of determinism - randomness - can somehow account for X choosing Y.

Unfortunately, a random process will be independent of X, so the "freedom" obtained just means "Y happens for no reason whatsoever, and it may involve some action on the part of X".

If there is a god and he gave man a gift, its the gift of ignorance. Its bliss gives us every form of excitement around every corner. Not "knowing" for sure becomes the most important aspect of being human. Free will is ignorance... ignorance of the past and the "actual" dominos that precede or own individual thoughts. If one designer molecule(any drug) interrupts a single neuron, are your thoughts still your own? Food, water, microwaves ect, effect thought.. I choose ignorance