Are determinism and dualism considered to be one-in-the-same?
Dualism AFAIK is believing that body and soul are two different entities. Atheism negates the soul so only the body exists, with the mind as a structure of brain activity.
Since the body is matter and subject to physics laws, some conclude that there can't be free will. But this is actually assuming a dualist vision, as if we existed outside the physical world.
Try this one. Consciousness as an emergent phenomenon. All the rules and laws by which the brain operates are completely constrained by physical laws, but they create an emergent 'field' in which it is not mathematically possible to predict the behavior of the field.
The brain has its own set of rules that it uses that is only partially attributable to the rest of the world around it. It can create it's own rules and operate 'under it's own steam', in the same way that North Korea manages to operate largely autonomously of the world around it. It's certainly constrained by geopolitics, but its internal behavior manages to remain free regardless.
I used to want to reach for quantum mechanics to explain the brain, now I'm happy with "plain old" electromagnetism.
Agreed. I actually wrote a short paper walking through determinism and non-determinism to ultimately demonstrate that we can’t describe a system in which we have control as any system with rules governing it directly violate the possibility of control. My conclusion was not that free will is impossible, but that it at very least can not be defined. I may upload it if I get some more peer review first.
I mentioned loosely above, but I agree that your definition of duality appears to be the common interpretation. I think I also have to be more careful how I use the word in the future. :) I just realized I use it more generally, I think more inline with how eastern philosophy uses it. However, there does seems to be a connotation around mind-body problem with the term duality.
Dualism AFAIK is believing that body and soul are two different entities. Atheism negates the soul so only the body exists, with the mind as a structure of brain activity.
Since the body is matter and subject to physics laws, some conclude that there can't be free will. But this is actually assuming a dualist vision, as if we existed outside the physical world.