Since I have written about the issue of free will in recent times, I thought it beneficial to elaborate more on its nature, what it means and does not mean, in addition to why I know that I possess it. Free will is the ability to make decisions and perform behaviors unguided by an external force; determinism is the belief that things are determined beforehand by past events or other causes. The extent of determinism defended by a determinist greatly changes the veracity of the claims made by that person, as not all forms of determinism are philosophically valid.
Total determinism means I am just reacting, not reasoning, and yet I can and do reason. I wrote an entire article devoted to explaining this and how the ability to reason itself entails a type of free will [1]. Possession of the ability to reason necessitates both a conscious mind and free will, for otherwise I could not trust my ability to reason, as my thoughts and beliefs would be entirely beyond my control. And yet the only way for me to doubt or argue against my ability to reason (which is distinct from reason itself) is to use my ability to reason, meaning that what follows from total determinism is something which contradicts an inescapably necessary truth. Unless I am using fallacies my ability to reason is perfectly, infallibly reliable because a mind is aligned with reason itself, which cannot be false, to the extent that it does not harbor fallacies. Since the verified reliability of my ability to reason and my knowledge of it logically exclude the possibility that I have no control whatsoever over my mind, it follows that total determinism must be false.
But all I have yet shown is that my mind has some inner freedom; this says nothing about determinism outside of my mind. Nature is comprised of matter, and matter itself does not have consciousness or a will or a capacity to reason. Simple matter, unguided by a nonmaterial force, will merely react to previous material causes, leading to a grand chain of determined causes and effects that stretches back all the way to the first cause [3]. Since mind is not identical to the brain and thus is not subject to the same deterministic scientific laws, it is not confined to blindly reacting according to any determinism in nature--though I doubt that those who have not taken a Cartesian approach to epistemology would realize this quickly, if at all. I have explained the concept of a mind elsewhere:
"In the end, only an illogical or uneducated person would truly believe that the mind is synonymous with any part of the body or vice versa. My mind, my seat of consciousness that experiences perceptions and memories and thoughts, is a nonphysical, intangible thing that perceives; my body, the sum of material substance that forms my outward 'shell', is comprised of physical matter and is not animated apart from my conscious mind, for matter alone does not perceive. Mind and body are objectively distinct, and logic and experience demonstrate this in full. My nonphysical mind grasps my thoughts and logic, which is itself a series of immaterial, inviolable, and universal laws that govern all of reality, including any material world . . . whereas my body's senses apprehend various manifestations of matter. No one can physically grab a mind or consciousness, but one can physically grab matter." [2]
Demonstrating to myself that total determinism contradicts the tenets of my reasoning which cannot be false and that my mind is nonphysical and thus distinct from the material world proves with absolute certainty that any determinism in nature does not necessarily affect my mind. I have already shown how I can know logically speaking that I have at least some degree of free will, but now I am explaining how this freedom of my will is unaffected even if all of nature outside of me operates under complete determinism.
I have a will in my mind (I am consciously aware of this just as I am aware of my thoughts and sensory perceptions), and I perform outward actions, and my will and actions are in complete synch. It seems to be this experiential phenomenon that leads many people to conclude that they are making real choices guided by their own wills even when they know little to nothing of the logical points I am making in this post. For this reason, I know that there is an unmistakable connection between my will and my behaviors.
I know for the previously described reasons that I possess a kind of free will. Even if someone confined the body of a person with free will, the mind and its rationality can remain free. I mean that a mind in possession of free will can choose its beliefs and in general choose the actions and motions of various members of its body. Now, let me explain what free will does not mean. It does not mean that I or anyone else with free will is in total control of absolutely everything our minds or bodies experience. Someone could have a thought suddenly enter his or her mind unsummoned or have a dream which he or she did not consciously choose beforehand. Not everything someone's mind or body does occurs because that person mentally willed it to happen. A person with free will could lift his or her arm in total synch with what that person's mind wills, but might experience involuntary genital arousal not only without mental desire but against the will of the mind, for instance, or that person's stomach might growl, again, against the wishes of the mind. If someone told a companion not to think about a red dog, a mental image of a red dog could appear in the latter person's mind whether he or she willed it to or not, and that person may not be able to will the image away immediately. But he or she can choose what to say in response or to possibly bring up other thoughts to accompany that one--and can certainly utilize his or her ability to reason in alignment with reason itself. In my own life, at least some freedom of my will exists. Logic and experience both confirm this. Right now, as I write these words, I can pause, continue, or consider my words as I want to in my mind.
I hope that this elaboration on the nature of free will is helpful to those wishing to understand the topic better. Free will remains a feature of very high philosophical and theological significance to the status of the human mind, and rationalists will notice the logical errors of total determinism and the facts of immediate experience. The claims of some modern physicists, neuroscientists (like Sam Harris), and philosophers against free will do not have minor ramifications, for the entirety of human existence is affected by whether or not we possess free will.
[1]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/07/reason-refutes-determinism.html
[2]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/09/examining-meditations-part-6-mind-body.html
[3]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-uncaused-cause.html
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