I presume Romansh's comment relates to the constraints that are beyond our control, and during our discussion on the subject, we spent a lot of time on the internal constraints ... the most obvious one being the brain we're born with. David, you refer to "I" as if "I" were separate from the physical brain, and that underlies not only the problem of free will but also that of identity. It all boils down to whether we are entirely dependent on our physical cells or we have a form of energy within ourselves that is independent of them and is capable of directing them. That may also be seen as an analogy to the question of whether there is or is not a form of conscious energy that is independent of the material universe as we know it. Your old Greek buddies used to relate such analogies to microcosm and macrocosm. There are lots of routes back to your "first cause" ... and all of them lead to a T-junction!-David - it's not just constraints beyond our control. Brains, DNA genetics etc. It's about the information we receive and the universe we are born into.-I would like to know when we discuss free will what exactly are we free from.-rom