Do we really choose anything?

[IreneJohnson]

There is evidence to show that our subconscious minds can be influenced by external factors which limits our choosing.

I think there is evidence to show that our subconscious minds can be influenced by external factors, which guide and inform our choosing.

Our environment, the context of our very existence, is where those "external factors" come from. It would be surprising to find someone making choices without taking their own context into account, wouldn't it? These things don't "limit" our choices; they are the context within which we make those choices, surely?

External factors are not necessarily a part of our environment. Take subliminal messages. They are artificial and we do not consent to them nor consciously perceive them, and filter them out. While they are ineffective at best, they prevent the choice from being ours.

[LuckyR]

There is evidence to show that our subconscious minds can be influenced by external factors which limits our choosing.

I think there is evidence to show that our subconscious minds can be influenced by external factors, which guide and inform our choosing.

Our environment, the context of our very existence, is where those "external factors" come from. It would be surprising to find someone making choices without taking their own context into account, wouldn't it? These things don't "limit" our choices; they are the context within which we make those choices, surely?

External factors are not necessarily a part of our environment. Take subliminal messages. They are artificial and we do not consent to them nor consciously perceive them, and filter them out. While they are ineffective at best, they prevent the choice from being ours.

I think you fundamentally misunderstand the act of choosing. If I tell you to get chocolate ice cream, or if a TV ad promotes chocolate ice cream or if an undetectable subliminal message encourages you to get chocolate ice cream, and you actually choose it, you are still freely making a choice. Just as you would be if despite all three influences, you still chose vanilla. Not freely making a choice would be saying that the state of your brain chemistry and it's electrical state when the idea of having dessert came up, always leads to you saying "chocolate please" (regardless of my, the ad's and the subliminal messaging's input). That would be predetermination.

Free in this context does not mean free of influences, it means not predetermined.

[Pattern-chaser]

External factors are not necessarily a part of our environment.

I think our environment consists of "external factors", don't you? If not, then what does our environment comprise?