I think the experience of making a choice is more a matter of weighing your feelings against each other in the light of available information, when the necessary impulse arrives, the brain commits to the decision that carries the most weight in terms of feelings. We do not choose with free will to have the feelings we have, so free will is irrelevant to the experience of choice making.,(reply>), @straightedgerc sure, I agree with that. Thanks for an interesting discussion!,(reply>), @straightedgerc I think you misunderstand what I mean by feeling again. By saying feeling I am referring to that same electromechanical activity that you refer to. I am also saying that the subjective experience of feeling arises from, or rather is part of the subjective nature of that electromechanical activity. It doesn't seem we actually disagree that much. However I'm not sure how the way that the brain constructs or processes awareness relates to the decision making process in this discussion. We don't really know how neurons create awareness or make decisions, so the best we can do is make inferences from our experience and compare that what little we know about brain mechanics. Thus, the best we can say is that the phenomena that underlie the experience of feelings appear to be the mechanisms of choice making. I think it goes without saying that these mechanisms are based in the fundamental forces of the universe, such as electromagnetism or whatever forces may be still more fundamental than this,(reply>), @straightedgerc I wouldn't call acting out intent making a choice, although you're welcome to that definition. By making a choice, I mean what happens when people are deciding what to do or think when there are a few competing options available. I also disagree that something like a cell has intent. Biology and the deeper sciences tell us that survival is merely a matter of probability based on the interaction of the physical components of the system, not intent. I would agree with you in the sense that these components of life and other matter act in a way that resembles acting out intention, because the fundamental forces operate in a way that could be described as acting out a will to existence,(reply>), No, actually I am referring to feelings as the phenomena that underlie both the experience of feelings and the experience of choice-making, and I am essentially saying that the experience of choice making is a subset of the the experience of feelings, although that is an incomplete description because it ignores the role of rational thoughts.,(reply>), @straightedgerc I think choice making is simply the interaction and development of feelings in the light of information. I realize I didn't clearly differentiate what I meant by feelings and experience in this context. When I say feelings cause choices, I don't mean that the subjective experience of feelings results in choices, but rather the phenomena that underlie the subjective experience of feelings are what cause choices. I think Nietzsche put it better when he said that there is no one free will that can choose one path over another, but rather a collection of competing wills where one proves to be stronger, and we think of this as a choice because we are under the illusion that our consciousness is a single self rather than a collection of components. I don't agree with him completely, but I think it makes the point.