I watched the interview with philosopher and professor Agustín Rayo. I was most surprised by his strong assertion that physics does not speak to free will in the free will-determinism debate. This was part of his interesting perspective that determinism is just a very good predictor of the exercise of freedom. He provided an example of a friend who always goes to watch a movie on Friday: On Fridays, we could say it's determined they're going to watch a movie, but actually what we're observing is the exercise of their freedom. Having learned a bit about the free will-determinism debate from the political theory side, this seems like an interesting form of compatibilism — the school of thought that thinks free will and determinism can coexist — where, instead of redefining free will (which most compatibilist theories do), he has redefined determinism such that the two concepts can work together.
I would follow up with Professor Rayo and ask if he believes neuroscience speaks to the existence or lack thereof of free will? Recent neuroscientific discoveries have suggested that all our thoughts and actions are caused by the processing of external stimuli, where our experience of consciously "willing" these thoughts and actions is only a myth that in fact occurs post-thought or action. This leads many philosophers to reject notions of free will that can go against deterministic forces, but I wonder if Professor Rayo might argue that this overarching process is itself a subliminal expression of freedom.
Thanks for this exceptionality deep post, Christina. You have given us much to think about beyond the interview!