"Free will is the notional capacity or ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded."
The belief that humans have the ability to make choices that are not determined solely by their past experiences or the laws of physics.
Determinism: The belief that all events, including human actions, are ultimately determined by prior causes.
Indeterminism: The belief that some events, including human actions, are not completely determined by prior causes.
Compatibilism: The belief that determinism and free will are compatible.
Incompatibilism: The belief that determinism and free will are incompatible.
Libertarianism: A form of incompatibilism that posits that humans have free will that is not entirely determined by prior causes.
Hard determinism: A form of incompatibilism that posits that determinism is true and humans do not have free will.
Causal determinism: The belief that all events, including human actions, can be explained by prior causes.
Teleological determinism: The belief that all events, including human actions, are oriented toward a purpose or end.
Fatalism: The belief that all events, including human actions, are predetermined and inevitable.
Agency: The capacity of an individual to act intentionally and make choices.
Moral responsibility: The attribution of praise or blame to individuals for their actions.
Freedom of action: The ability to act without external constraints.
Freedom of will: The ability to choose between alternative courses of action.
Divine foreknowledge: The belief that God has perfect knowledge of all future events, including human actions.
Consciousness: The state of being aware of one's surroundings, thoughts, and feelings.
Intentionality: The property of mental states in which they are about something.
Mind-body dualism: The belief that the mind and body are separate entities.
Materialism: The belief that the mind is a product of physical processes in the brain.
Emergentism: The belief that the mind arises from the interaction of physical processes in the brain in a way that cannot be reduced to those processes alone.
Epiphenomenalism: The belief that mental states are caused by physical processes in the brain but do not have any causal power of their own.
Libertarian Free Will: This type of Free Will asserts that individuals have the power to make choices independent of any external force or pre-determined events. A libertarian approach to Free Will typically denies any form of determinism and insists that individuals can generate and act on their own decisions.
Compatibilist Free Will: Compatibilist Free Will, also known as soft determinism, argues that freedom and determinism can coexist. According to this view, individuals are free to make choices even if those choices are predetermined or have external influences. Such philosophers think that, despite the existence of external conditions, an individual's choices remain a reflection of their own desires and beliefs.
Hard Determinism: The hard determinist philosophy asserts that every event in the universe, including human decision-making, is determined by a prior cause. Hence, man cannot exercise Free Will since his actions and thinking are a chain of reactions to prior experiences and situations.
Fatalism: Fatalism emphasizes the inevitability of future events and suggests a belief in fate or destiny. Under this view, human choices and actions are ultimately predetermined, whether by a divine power or the laws of the universe.
Voluntarism: Voluntarism is the belief that the will of individuals is self-determining and capable of shaping the world based on their desires. Unlike other philosophies that assign power to external factors or divine entities, voluntarism asserts that individuals have the power to control their destiny and shape their circumstances freely.
Cognitive Self-Determination: This theory argues that individuals can determine their character and behavior with their thoughts, beliefs, and social ties. Unlike the determinist view, cognitive self-determination ascribes the role of human actions to the overall psychologies, beliefs, thoughts, and values of the individual.
Theistic Determinism: Theistic determinism asserts the belief that God or divine beings predetermine human actions and choices. As a result, there is no free will in the sense that human behavior and decisions are not independent of divine influences.
"Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgments which apply only to actions that are freely chosen."
"It is also connected with the concepts of advice, persuasion, deliberation, and prohibition."
"Traditionally, only actions that are freely willed are seen as deserving credit or blame."
"The implications of whether free will exists or not are some of the longest running debates of philosophy and religion."
"Some conceive of free will as the ability to act beyond the limits of external influences or wishes."
"Some conceive free will to be the capacity to make choices undetermined by past events."
"Determinism suggests that only one course of events is possible, which is inconsistent with a libertarian model of free will."
"Ancient Greek philosophy identified this issue, which remains a major focus of philosophical debate."
"The view that conceives free will as incompatible with determinism is called incompatibilism."
"Incompatibilism encompasses both metaphysical libertarianism (the claim that determinism is false and thus free will is at least possible) and hard determinism (the claim that determinism is true and thus free will is not possible)."
"Hard incompatibilism holds not only determinism but also indeterminism to be incompatible with free will and thus free will to be impossible whatever the case may be regarding determinism."
"Compatibilists hold that free will is compatible with determinism."
"Some compatibilists even hold that determinism is necessary for free will, arguing that choice involves preference for one course of action over another, requiring a sense of how choices will turn out."
"Compatibilists thus consider the debate between libertarians and hard determinists over free will vs. determinism a false dilemma."
"Classical compatibilists considered free will nothing more than freedom of action, considering one free of will simply if, had one counterfactually wanted to do otherwise, one could have done otherwise without physical impediment."
"Contemporary compatibilists instead identify free will as a psychological capacity, such as to direct one's behavior in a way responsive to reason."
"Different compatibilists offer very different definitions of what 'free will' means and consequently find different types of constraints to be relevant to the issue."
"There are still further different conceptions of free will, each with their own concerns, sharing only the common feature of not finding the possibility of determinism a threat to the possibility of free will."
"Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgments which apply only to actions that are freely chosen."