Free Will And Causality

One of the most fundamental facts about causality is one of the most obvious truths about it: every effect has a cause.  Even when the exact cause of an effect is ultimately uncertain (as is the case with most causal relationships), one can easily prove that the event would not exist without a cause of some kind.  Since a decision is an event, albeit a mental one, it, like a physical event, must have a cause.  Nothing can produce nothing, and a decision is something that must be made by a decision-maker.

A free choice does have a cause, but this does not entail any sort of determinism; a free choice could have been made differently, but this does not mean free will is random.  These facts only mean that a free choice requires a will to make the decision in question.  A decision cannot be made in a vacuum, and yet no prior decision prevents one from choosing any options from a given set of possibilities.  One choice does not negate the ability to choose one outcome from multiple options later on.

If a will is not dictated by some external force--God, the subconscious, or the laws of physics, to list several examples--there is no causal link between one decision and another.  Suppose that a being with free will chooses to walk into a room in order to grab an object inside.  It could, at any time, turn around and leave the room, as its former choice to enter does not force it to stay committed to any one course of action.  Causality is upheld by necessity, as the being made its choice, but the causality of free will is not deterministic.

Nothing about the concept or existence of free will contradicts the necessary truths of causality.  All events/effects must have a cause, but a will that is free is the architect of its own decisions.  In other words, a free will is the self-guided cause of its own choices.  Nothing forces its will so that it could not choose another option from the range of possible choices available to it.  Without the potential to have selected a different course of action (even on a mental level), there is no volitional freedom.