Argument against free will #4: deliberation

1) For our choices to be free, we must be in control of our deliberation process.

2) We are not in control of our deliberation process.

3) So, our choices are not free.

Why think 1? When we introspect, we see ourselves making choices. Certainly, choices are being made, but I have a question over who or what is making these choices. If the deliberation process takes place entirely within our brains, and our experiences of witnessing ourselves make choices is really just us witnessing our brains resolving calculations, then choice is an illusion, as it's not us that's making the choice, but our brain that chooses and generates within us the misleading sensation of the choice coming from us. Call this view automatism.

If automatism is true, then we are not in control of our choices. But if automatism is false, we are still not in control of our choices. Even if the pure subject causes its choices, that causal story has a context involving all sorts of factors that we have no control over. Our deliberation process depends on our intelligence, genetics, epigenetics, quality of education, access to educational resources, beliefs, values, desires, second-order desires, rationality, sensitivity to reasons, psychology, social pressures, time constraints, and so on. We do not have control over our intelligence, genetics, epigenetics, quality of education, access to educational resources, beliefs, values, desires, second-order desires, rationality, sensitivity to reasons, psychology, social pressures, time constraints, and so on. So, we do not have control over our deliberation processes. So, we have no control over the conclusion of our deliberation processes. So, we have no control over our choices. 

Most importantly, most painfully, and most obviously, we do not choose our intelligence, and we do not choose our time constraints. Even with full access to accurate information, if our intelligence is not high enough to absorb it and synthesize it in time to make a well-informed choice, then the resulting low quality of our choice is not our fault. And if we do have plenty of intelligence and/or time to absorb and synthesize accurate information to make a well-informed choice in time, then that's not our fault either.