Presence

In the comments of my last post on free will vs. determinism, Moishe Potemkin brought up a good question that I think bears further examination. Moishe's comment:

I would hesitate to "presume" determinism once it has been proven false by quantum physics.

Briefly, quantum physics has revealed that, at the molecular level, events that are thought to be causal in nature turn out to, in fact, be statistical. Read more on quantum indeterminacy if you're interested; the important point is that, at the quantum level, there is no such thing as determinism. The supposition is that this indeterminacy provides a basis for free will in the mind.

The problem is is that it doesn't. Even if we could show some kind of connection between physical brain states and cognitive decisions, we must examine what kind of "free will" we would be left with if based on quantum indeterminacy. An indeterminate free will would be random, erratic and unpredictable. The individual exercising such a free will would not appear to us to be acting in any rational fashion. What we are looking for in free will is not the potential for any random occurrence to present itself at any time, but a reasoned, rational intellect exercising a will that can make a decision independent of antecedent conditions. Quantum indeterminism does not provide the basis for this kind of free will.

In case I said that badly, here's a bit more of a professional approach to the subject.