What can we say about free will? What can we really know about it?

The concept of a completely free will is completely unrealistic. There are just too many influences and restrictions:

• Biological influences: Our genes form the blueprint of our body. Without genes, we would have no body and therefore no brain to make decisions with. You don’t even have to take it to the extreme. Take being tall as an example. It can certainly give you some additional possibilities or at least have an effect on your decisions.
• Social influences: Parents, school, society in general, they all teach you morals which strongly influence the way you make decisions. And they also affect your general attitude.
• Past experiences: Your memories influence your present state of mind. And your present state of mind contributes to the decision making process. Past accidents can also effect your will in a special way, if they happened to hurt your brain for example.
• Environmental influences: Decisions are always related to an outside world with which you interact, so your will needs to be dependent on something external. This is why complete freedom of will would be paradoxical from the very beginning. In fact, it is only because of your environment that you have decisions to make.

This list might even be incomplete, so you see, an independent will doesn’t exist for some good reasons.

But can we still have a free will?

I say yes. It can still be free within borders. The important thing is that you can make a conscious choice. You might not have all the choices that you can think of, but you have choices. Of course, I can’t really prove that. But it wouldn’t matter anyway if I was wrong, would it?