>>24686533 (OP)
Here's the thing, OP, and it's something I only realized recently, even though it's so obvious and basic that we're all implicitly aware of it yet don't even bother thinking through what it actually means. You're only "free" insofar as you are not enslaved by your appetites. Other animals don't have "free will" because they're creatures of appetites. If you leave animals to their own devices for millions of years in a relatively stable environment, they will not change their behaviors since selection will optimize their appetites for them. Humans are unique out of all creatures in that we are capable of conditioning ourselves to delay gratification and suppress appetites to achieve things that we want. That's why humanity has progressing culture and technology, why economic growth exists, etc, because humans and human cultures have figured out that you need virtue to truly have "free" will, i.e., a will that's free from the passions, and with that freedom comes the ability to choose how to shape the world around you with your intellect and will. Basically what
>>24686848 said. Now, on determinism, of course some people are born with more capabilities than others. Some people have absolutely no impulse control, and that's why they're not "free", because their actions are entirely determined by their biological needs, like animals. But in the average case, anyone can be trained towards virtuous action by discipline, either by themselves (seldom) or by those around them (family, culture), and this creates a feedback mechanism that selects for people that are literally "cultivated", which propels what I mentioned earlier, the phenomenon of human growth and progress that you don't see in other animals.
