“...if you think determinism is true, you’re in an inherently self-defeating position.” Well, no. Determinists have lots of reasons that aren't necessarily 'self defeating'.

I began working through ways in which the logic of the argument fails, but gave up, not because the argument is a good one, but because untangling the many assumptions and sketchy moves and definitions here would take too long.

I suspect the fundamental problem with this is in the attempt to discuss something about lived human experience using rules of logic, which have their limits, and which are the product of a particular kind of thought in a particular historical and philosophical context. That leaves a lot of life out.

I'm not sure I remember this right, but was it not Kant who suggested that we can't tell if we have free will or not, but that the best course of action is to act as though we do (?)