CSflim

Yes. I failed to define what I believe to be "the self".
It is a very difficult thing to define, especially with the aim of illuminating free will. Also my answer to this would bring up all sorts of tangent arguments, mostly related to religion, which is something I want to explicitly avoid.

So I guess, we will have to ask again, what is the question we are really looking to answer?

The question of whether we are deterministic/indeterministic is pretty irrelevent, and is purely a question of scientific investigation and emprical observations.

What the crux of the matter is, to me at least, is whether we are responsible for our actions.
A very naieve approach to the issue is to claim that as we don't have 'free will' (in the sense described above), we are not responsible for our actions, and hence, should not be punished for shooting someone/robbery/etc..."I wasn't acting out of free will. I was a slave to the laws of physics"

So can we reconcile our "lack of free will" with the concept of "responsibility for our actions"? (I hesitate to use the word morality, as that would bring up all sorts of other unrelated arguments).

I believe that we can.

I will post again later.

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