stump

Alright feel free to exchange the word 'emotions' for 'behaviour' the questions still stand unanswered.

Yes but before she started to write, she started to want. And if you want something hard enough is there really much choice? Don't you just do everything you can to make it happen? And yes, talent isnt enough. A lot of time it requires practice, but can't the willingness to practice also be explained by genetics? That some just are hard working and patient by nature and others are not?

Yes it is possible to control emotions, but the question is why is it possible. What makes it possible. Will power? Where does will power come from? Is it something we all have to various degrees? If so thats not very fair is it. And it's not up to us is it. How can we take credit for something that a) we're born with and b- wether we use it or not and to what degrees and success, again depends on our born with abilities. There's countless millions of people that struggle and fail to control their emotions. Free will doesn't help them a whole lot now does it?

So how did Ayn Rand put her free will to use? If you really have a passion for something, say writing, then it really doesnt come down to a decision does it, you just do what you enjoy because, well you enjoy doing it. And that passion isn't something you figure out, it's something you either have or dont have. Same as imagination, skill for writing etc.

Maybe you need your organs in the after life (if such exist)

I guess you've never fallen in love then if you think it's a rational thing that you decide upon, or not. How do you know if people can choose to stop eating cake or not? How could you possibly know if it's possible, you don't have their set of genes, experiences, upbringing, habits etc. if it's as simple as to choose or not to choose, how come they don't choose? There's plenty of people that would want nothing more than to choose not to, millions. Yet they don't. Same with smoking. Some people find it easy to quit so they think it's easy just because it's easy for them, but they fail to see that people are different. Just like you fail to see that people are different. What's easy for you is hard to impossible for someone else.

Did Ayn Rand have free will? And if so did she put it to use? Ayn Rand's ability to write and to think must be a combination of genetics and environment. No matter how much we 'will' something we cannot write as good as Ayn Rand, we don't share her environment and experiences and we lack the skill of writing and her imagination. Then she was lucky to be able to come to the US and become a citizen there (a luck most people in the world does not have, so even if there's far greater writers in the world than Rand, they cannot write and get published because where they are geographically) When it comes to Rand it was genetics (her ability to write and think), environment (upbringing, living in Soviet union that shaped her thoughts) and luck (her chance to come to the US) The question is then, can she be praised for anything? Anything at all?

If the earths resources are limited, maybe you living for hundreds and hundreds of years will be at the expense of others.

If determinism is true there is no "I"

If I fall in love with a girl it's not because of a decision it's because, well I just fall in love. There's no starting point, it just happends. I can't MAKE myself love everybody. No matter how hard i choose to think. If I'm obese it can be because of genetic factors. Or eating habits established as a child. Or my reaction to a depression. Or because I just love food, I didn't one day wake up and decided to love food I just do. Or a bad habit I cannot break because I don't have whatever it takes, to break it. Or maybe, just maybe I CAN break that bad habit... well then it's because I DO have what it takes (but whatever that is, I didn't create so it's no thanks to me...) If I prefer blondes to brunettes, it's not by choice, it's by preference. Did I create that preference? No. It's just there. In each and everyone of us. No matter if we're objectivists or not. As we can see there's always a BEFORE reason, something BEFORE we make a decision proving that we dont make a decison ebcause the decision has already been made before us.

To claim that this is a fact (as in a proven, established fact) isn't good enough. Then you're off to mysticism.

If there's precious factors involved that drives the decision then the starting point was before "your" decision making and you didn't create it.

I disagree. If you fall in love, there's no conscious choosing involved. Or if you start daydream. Or if you get an erection. Or... I'd even go so far that people most of the time dont think, and dont consciously choose. Rather they're on autopilot most of the time.

No. Not if choice is an illusion. Then there cannot be one. All situations.

If we take into account things like addiction, personalities, heritage, preference, inherited intelligence, environment and numerous other things that we at no time picked and at no time choosed, we'll find out that whatever choice we end up making was already being made before we were presented with the alternatives. Thus, there really is no choice, there is no volition.