What sort of actions are possible for us and in what sense are they free - and does it matter?

reflex actions -

If someone hits my knee at the right place, then my leg will move. I have no control over it. It is a reflex action. I am not responsible for it, because it happens despite my best endeavours.

duress -

Someone much stronger than me takes hold of my arm and hits someone with it. My will was overridden and the consequent harm is not my fault - my arm was used by someone-else as if it were a stick.

actions which are impossible of implementation -

I may say that I have decided to go to Mars tomorrow.  It is physically impossible for me to do so.  As I am incapable of implementing such a decision, it is in practice highly unlikely that I shall make such a decision. Instead, I may express it as a hope or a wish that one day I may be able to do this.

actions which are capable of being implemented -

Actions capable of implementation fall within a wide range of possibility. They may be easy or hard to implement.  They may be so far outside the normal range of my abilities e.g physical strength, that it is highly unlikely that I shall ever wish to do them in view of the training that would be required. Nonetheless, I could perhaps if motivated in some way do things which seemed, at the outset, to be impossible for me.

actions which I do not want to do -

But, if I do not want to do something, would I ever decide to do it? It is here that the classic theories of free-will kick in.  They presume that moral imperatives are in conflict with my baser desires.  Is this really so? It seems to me and to others that moral behaviour benefits others and benefits me as well.  Indeed, it appears that we are all wired to wish to act altruistically within certain limits, even though the benefits to the altruistic individual may not be immediately obvious: sometimes acting altruistically is harmful to health. Society though depends for its existence upon limited altruism - and we depend for our well-being on being a part of society, with its support for the individual.

That such desires exist should not be surprising.  The desire to eat is a requirement for the continued existence of the individual.  If we take the strongest of our drives, sex, however, it can be seen that there is no necessary net benefit to the individual in procreating, which is why there is pleasure in the act itself. Giving birth is actually quite hazardous and having to find the means to bring up offspring is demanding.  It is necessary, however for the survival of the species.  Acting morally falls into the same category.  It tends to enhance the survival of the species regardless of the effect on the individual practising it.

conclusion -

A decision taken by me is my decision. It will have been taken after reflection, however briefly, upon the possible outcomes.  It necessarily incorporates my then assessment of the moral aspects of my behaviour and gives weight to them according to the way I see and feel things.  If I could go back in time and re-make that decision would it be any different?  I hope not - if all the circumstances had been exactly the same, there is no reason to believe that it would have been any different.  Indeed, had it been different, it would not have been my decision, but one which had just appeared from nowhere - a truly random decision.

I shall be satisfied if I feel that my decisions are simply an integral part of me and my personality, not that they are free in the indeterministic, random sense. A randomly based decision is not after all mine. It is imposed upon me by whatever mechanism is involved in its creation. By definition, it does not derive from my personality because it is random. The decision I want to make is the one which is right for me as judged by me and not one which is imposed from the outside.

A real problem arises, however, when I make a decision which I know is not for my long term good.  It is mine, but not the one I ought to have made.  This though simply tells us that we are not good at making decisions which involve long time scales or pain now for benefit later.  Which means in turn that the balance of our emotions and drives has not yet evolved in that direction sufficiently to be able to weigh things differently.