[Purrybonker]

There's lots of philosophy on this subject. Most of this type of deconstruction has us as completely impotent in terms of intellectual freedom, reason and choice. We're all just biological or sociological machines acting in predictable and mechanical ways.

I almost prefer Tolstoy's take on the matter of self-determination in his epilogue to War & Peace. There he ups the ante and expands on a theme that is consistently raised in the novel about how man (both as an individual and as a society) is not only simply a machine, but further, has absolutely no ability to influence his own actions or fate. He deconstructs the topic methodically and convincingly.

But really, it's much better to ignore matters of such gravity and just keep on firkin and crapping with a smile on one's face.