[waveman2]

It is a reasonable position I think. Given the progress with understanding many other things, it is reasonable to expect progress here - bearing in mind the incredible complexity of the brain.

If philosophers were going to solve this problem they would have done so already, given that they have been at it for 2500 years or so with no real signs of progress.

Science on the other hand has made enormous progress in understanding living things. Recall for example that only 100 years ago many or most people adhered to "vitalism" ie the view that living things contained an "elan vital" which distinguished them from inorganic matter. Enter biochemistry.

[JackFr]

As consciousness is tamed by scientific material reductionism, would you expect 'free will' to become as absurd a notion 100 years from now as 'elan vital' seems to us?