“You have to believe in free will, you have no choice.” I.B. Singer 
It certainly alters the brain, much like a low grade of gas may alter your car’s performance, which in turn alters your performance as the driver. Same thing.
The mind of a mouse may be just as our minds are, but because of the limitations of its physical body/brain, there’s only so much it can do.
It’s an alternate belief. Without empirical certainty, you can only believe one view or another. You lack belief in what I believe, but not in what you believe. Like you said, you’re going to have to be convinced otherwise. You’re already convinced one way with no certainty that you’re right.
Or, you can choose to, in spite of the pain, not pull your hand away.
Where it gets interesting to me is that if there is not free will, if all we do is determined by our physical make-up, then is the illusion that we’re free necessary? Would the realization that you are not in control of your actions alter your behavior? Not because you have the free will to do so, but because your shift in worldview has altered the environment that makes decisions.
The inability to predict human behavior is often sited as “proof” or the reasoning behind the idea that we cannot be deterministic. That always bothered me.
Our inability to predict an outcome because of our inability to know in each moment every parameter of that system does not mean that system isn’t deterministic. It just means its too complex for us to predict what it will do. If all could be known, it stands to reason it’s behavior could be predicted.
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It’s not performance. Drugs alter mood, inhibitions, and the mind in general. Bad gas doesn’t alter the driver.
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I can lack a belief in both views. “I don’t know” is an option.
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No, it doesn’t alter the driver, but it does alter the driver’s ability to perform. For instance, if you installed a distorted windshield in your vehicle. The driver still is not altered, but the driver’s ability to accurately perceive the environment through the distorted windshield would affect the driver’s ability to react to the environment.
When the mind is attempting to perform using a brain/body that is chemically altered by alcohol, their perception is altered, affecting all sorts of things.
The mind is heavily dependent on the body and the information it gathers from the body.
This does not mean the mind is affected by the chemical changes directly. More indirectly.
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It isn’t about the ability to react to the environment. It is about the fundamental operation of the mind, from mood to decision making to how we treat others. People’s personalities change due to drugs, not to mention strokes or other physical damage to the brain. People with Alzheimer’s will have massive mood swings. At least to me, your analogy just doesn’t line up.
Mood, decision making, how we treat others, this is all highly dependent on the physical brain. Mood, for example, is chemical. The brain is what fascilitates the mind in interacting with the physical world around us. Any alterations to that brain affect the mind’s ability to perceive and perform.
The only way we can perceive the mind is through the actions/behaviors of the individual. And those actions/behaviors are affected when the physical brain is affected.
Then what is the mind if it isn’t decision making, mood, and the rest?
The brain is the computer, the mind is the operator. The computer does all the computations, processing, data gathering, etc, which facilitates the mind’s ability to operate.
So what does the mind do that the brain does not?
The brain is not a computer, and it does not need an operator. It does need a connected body.
Operates. Your computer would just sit there if you didn’t log into it and give it commands.
The brain is very much like a computer. It has input devices through the senses where it gathers physical information, processes, and stores it. When the mind requests, the brain recalls and loads that stored information to then be used. The brain/computer can then be used to process that information like imagining potential outcomes of a given decision while the mind uses this information to determine its next course of action.
You (your mind) decides to raise your arm. Your mind tells your brain, which then sends the signal to physically raise your arm. Your mind can’t raise your arm without your brain.
We are going to disagree on that.
That’s not a good description of how the brain works.
You have already said that the brain gives those commands.
“Mood, decision making, how we treat others, this is all highly dependent on the physical brain.”–Jeremy
This is why I am confused. Drugs and injury affect the commands that are given. If I take a sledgehammer to my keyboard it doesn’t affect my mood or decision making.
How would you describe it? Or, what do you disagree with?