Free will

Definition

Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choose between different possible courses of action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral responsibility, or (c) be the ultimate source or originator of their actions. There are different theories as to its nature, and these aspects are often emphasized differently depending on philosophical tradition, with debates focusing on whether and how such freedom can coexist with physical determinism, divine foreknowledge, and other constraints.

Related concepts

5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel A Theory of Justice A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge A Treatise of Human Nature A Universe of Consciousness Ability Abortion-rights Abstract and concrete Abstract object Abstract object theory Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari Academic freedom Accountability Action theory (philosophy)Adam Smith Advice (opinion)After Virtue Agency (philosophy)Agency in Mormonism Agnosia Al-Ghazali Al-Kindi Al-Nijat Alasdair MacIntyre Albert Einstein Alcubierre drive Alexander Rosenberg Alexander of Aphrodisias Alexius Meinong Alfred North Whitehead Alien hand syndrome All men are created equal Altered state of consciousness Alternate history Alvin Plantinga Alvin Plantinga's free-will defense An Essay Concerning Human Understanding An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation Anarchism Ancient Greek philosophy Andrzej Nowak (psychologist)Angst Anil Seth Anima mundi Animal Animal consciousness Animal ethics Annaka Harris Anomalous monism Anthropocentrism Anti-realism Antonio Damasio Applied ethics Apriority Architectural determinism Argument from free will Aristotle Arminianism Arthur Schopenhauer Artificial consciousness Artificial intelligence Artistic freedom Ash'ari Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness Astik Attention Attention schema theory Attentional control Augustine of Hippo Authority Autonomy Averroes Avicenna Awareness Axiological ethics Axiology B-theory of time BTZ black hole Baron d'Holbach Baruch Spinoza Bas relief Beard and haircut laws by country Behavioural sciences Being and Nothingness Being and Time Benjamin Libet Bereitschaftspotential Bernard Baars Bernard Bolzano Bernard Williams Bertrand Russell Binding problem Binocular rivalry Bioethics Biological determinism Biologist Blame Blindsight Boethius Brain Brian O'Shaughnessy (philosopher)Buddhism Buddhist ethics Buridan's ass Business ethics Butterfly effect C.S. Lewis Calvinism Calvinists Cannabis rights Carl Ginet Carl Jung Cartesian theater Casuistry Category of being Cauchy horizon Causa sui Causal closure Causal determinism Causal loop Causal structure Causality Causality (physics)Cause (medicine)Cerebral cortex Chain of prior occurrences Chaos theory Charles Augustus Strong Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Taylor (philosopher)Christian List Christian Wolff (philosopher)Christian ethics Christian perfection Christian theology Christine Korsgaard Christof Koch Christopher Peacocke Chronology protection conjecture Chrysippus Chuanyue Cicero Citizendium Civil and political rights Civil libertarianism Civil liberties Clarendon Press Claudio Costa (philosopher)Closed timelike curve Clothing laws by country Cogito, ergo sum Cognition Cognitive liberty Cognitive psychology Cognitive robotics Cognitive science Cognitivism (ethics)Colin McGinn Common sense Compassion Compatibilism Compatibilist Computational theory of mind Computer ethics Concept Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments Confucianism Confucius Conscience Consciousness Consciousness Explained Consciousness after death Consciousness and Cognition Consciousness causes collapse Consent Consequentialism Contingency (philosophy)Corpus callosum Correlation does not imply causation Cosmic Consciousness Cosmic censorship hypothesis Cosmology Cosmos Council of Trent Counterfactual thinking Courts of law Creator deity Critique of Practical Reason Critique of Pure Reason Culpability Cultural determinism Culture of life Cārvāka Damasio's theory of consciousness Dancing ban Daneshnameh-ye Alai Daniel Dennett Daniel Wegner Darwinism Data David Bohm David Chalmers David Hume David Kellogg Lewis David Lewis (philosopher)David Malet Armstrong David Papineau David Pearce (philosopher)Day of Judgement De libero arbitrio (Augustine book)De rerum natura Decision theory Decriminalization of sex work Deity Deliberation Demon Deontological ethics Derek Parfit Derk Pereboom (philosopher)Descriptive ethics Desert (philosophy)Destiny Determinism Deterministic system Deterministic system (philosophy)Dick Swaab Dictionnaire philosophique Dietrich Bonhoeffer Digital rights Dignity Diogenes Dirt jump Discourse ethics Disorders of consciousness Divided consciousness Divine command theory Divine foreknowledge Divine providence in Judaism Domino effect Donald D. Hoffman Donald Davidson (philosopher)Dopamine Double-aspect theory Double standard Douglas Hofstadter Drug liberalization Dual consciousness Duns Scotus Duty Economic determinism Economic ethics Economic freedom Edmund Husserl Edward N. Zalta Egalitarianism Either/Or (Kierkegaard book)Elbow Room (Dennett book)Electromagnetic theories of consciousness Elements of the Philosophy of Right Eliminative materialism Embodied cognition Emergence Emergentism Emily Pronin Emotivism Empirical evidence Enactivism Engineering ethics Enneads Entity Environmental determinism Environmental ethics Epictetus Epicureanism Epilepsy Epiphenomenalism Epistemological pluralism Epistemology Epistle to the Ephesians Epistle to the Romans Erwin Schrödinger Essence Essentialism Eternalism (philosophy of time)Ethical intuitionism Ethical naturalism Ethical non-naturalism Ethical subjectivism Ethics Ethics (Spinoza book)Ethics in religion Ethics of artificial intelligence Ethics of care Ethics of eating meat Ethics of technology Ethics of terraforming Ethics of uncertain sentience Etiology Etiquette Eudaimonia Eugene Wigner Euthyphro dilemma Event (philosophy)Evil Evolutionary ethics Ex nihilo Existence Existence of God Existentialism Experience Experimental psychology Explanatory gap Expressivism Falliblism Family rights Family values Fatalism Fate Feminist ethics Feminist metaphysics Fidelity Financial freedom Flash suppression Four-dimensionalism Francis Crick Francisco Suárez Francisco Varela Frank Cameron Jackson Franz Brentano Fred Dretske FreeWill Free Will (disambiguation)Free will illusionism Free will in antiquity Free will in theology Free will theorem Freedom Freedom Evolves Freedom from discrimination Freedom of Expression (book)Freedom of assembly Freedom of association Freedom of choice Freedom of conscience Freedom of education Freedom of expression Freedom of expression in Algeria Freedom of expression in Canada Freedom of expression in India Freedom of expression in South Africa Freedom of information Freedom of movement Freedom of religion Freedom of speech Freedom of the press Freedom of thought Freethought Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche and free will Functional magnetic resonance imaging Functionalism (philosophy of mind)G. E. M. Anscombe G. E. Moore Galen Strawson Gautama Buddha General relativity Genetic determinism Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel George Berkeley George Henry Lewes George Musser Georges Rey Gerald Edelman Gilbert Ryle Gilles Deleuze Giulio Tononi Global workspace theory God Good Good and evil Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Grandfather paradox Greed Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Gun ownership Gustav Fechner Gödel metric H.A. Wolfson Hackett Publishing Company Hallucination Hans Helmut Kornhuber Happiness Hard determinism Hard incompatibilism Hard problem of consciousness Harry Austryn Wolfson Harry Frankfurt Harvard University Press Hebrew language Henri Bergson Henry Sidgwick Henry Stapp Hermann Lotze Heterophenomenology Higher-order theories of consciousness Higher consciousness Hilary Putnam Hindu philosophy Historical determinism History History of ethics Holonomic brain theory Honour How the Self Controls Its Brain Human brain Human right to water and sanitation Human rights Hypostatic abstraction Idappaccayatā Idea Ideal (ethics)Ideal observer theory Idealism Identity (philosophy)Ideology Illusion Illusionism (free will)Immanuel Kant Immanuel Missionary Church Immorality Importance Incompatibilism Incompatibilist Incompatible-properties argument Indeterminism Infallibility Information Insects in ethics Insight Instrumental and intrinsic value Integrated information theory Intellectual freedom Intelligence Intention Interactionism (philosophy of mind)Interactionist dualism Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Internet freedom Interpretation of quantum mechanics Interpretations of quantum mechanics Intrinsic value (ethics)Introspection illusion Intuition pump Isaac Newton Ishvara Islam Islamic ethics J. L. Mackie Jabriyya Jacobus Arminius Jain James Gleick Japanese values Jean-Paul Sartre Jean Baudrillard Jeremy Bentham Jessica Riskin Jewish ethics Jewish principles of faith Jewish thought Jim Jones John Calvin John Dewey John Eccles (neurophysiologist)John Locke John Martin Fischer John Polkinghorne John Rawls John Searle (American philosopher)John Stuart Mill John Wesley Joseph Butler Joseph Levine (philosopher)Joshua M. Epstein Journal of Consciousness Studies Journal of Integrative Neuroscience Joxe Azurmendi Julian Jaynes Justice Kantian ethics Karl Barth Karl H. Pribram Karl Popper Karma Karma in Buddhism Keith Frankish Kenneth M. Sayre Kerr metric Knowledge argument Krasnikov tube Kurt Koffka LGBTQ rights Land ethic Laozi Laplace's demon Lawrence Weiskrantz Left-libertarianism Legal ethics Legality of recording by civilians Libertarianism Libertarianism (metaphysics)Libertas Liberty Liberty (personification)Liberté, égalité, fraternité Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness Linguistic determinism Linguistic modality List of ethicists List of fictional works featuring parallel universes List of films featuring time loops List of four-dimensional games List of metaphysicians List of time travel works of fiction List of timelines Locked-in syndrome Locus of control Logical consequence Logical determinism Long-term depression Loyalty Lucretius Ludwig Wittgenstein Luis de Molina Lüder Deecke Machine ethics Maimonides Many-worlds interpretation Marketing ethics Martha Nussbaum Martin Heidegger Martin Luther Marvin Minsky Materialism Maurice Merleau-Ponty Max Planck Max Velmans Max Wertheimer Meaning (existential)Meaning of life Media ethics Medical ethics Meditations on First Philosophy Meliorism Mencius Mental representation Mereology Meta (prefix)Metaethics Metaphysical libertarianism Metaphysical necessity Metaphysics Metaphysics (Aristotle)Methodist Church Michael Dummett Michael Gazzaniga Michael Graziano Michael Tye (philosopher)Millisecond Mind Mind–body dualism Mind–body problem Minimally conscious state Minkowski spacetime Miracles (book)Misner space Mitzvah Molinism Monadology Monism Monotheism Moral absolutism Moral agency Moral circle expansion Moral constructivism Moral courage Moral desert Moral hierarchy Moral imperative Moral nihilism Moral particularism Moral psychology Moral rationalism Moral realism Moral relativism Moral responsibility Moral skepticism Moral universalism Morality Morphological freedom Motion Motivation Mozi Mu'tazilism Multiple drafts model Multiverse Mūlamadhyamakakārikā Nagarjuna Naturalism (philosophy)Nature (philosophy)Nature versus nurture Necessitarianism Ned Block Negative liberty Nervous system Neural correlates of consciousness Neural networks (biology)Neuron Neurophenomenology Neurophilosophy Neuroscience Neuroscience of free will Neurostimulation Neutral monism Nevi'im New mysterianism Newcomb's paradox Nicolas Malebranche Nicomachean Ethics Niels Bohr Nihilism Nominative determinism Nomological determinism Non-cognitivism Non-essentialism Non-reductive physicalism Nondualism Norm (philosophy)Norman Kretzmann Normative ethics Noumenon Novikov self-consistency principle Nursing ethics Nyaya Nyāya Sūtras Omnipotence Omniscience On the Bondage of the Will On the Freedom of the Will On the Genealogy of Morality Online Consciousness Conference Ontology Orchestrated objective reduction Orientability Outline of ethics Oxford University Press P. F. Strawson Pacifism Panpsychism Paradigm Parallel universes in fiction Parmenides Patricia Churchland Patrick Wilken Pattern Paul Carus Paul Churchland Paul Tillich Paul the Apostle Penguin Press Perception Personality disorders Personality rights Persuasion Peter Singer Peter van Inwagen Phenomena Phenomenalism Phenomenology (philosophy)Philip Goff (philosopher)Philippa Foot Philo of Alexandria Philosophical realism Philosophical theory Philosophical zombie Philosophy Philosophy of Mind Philosophy of law Philosophy of matter Philosophy of mind Philosophy of psychology Philosophy of self Philosophy of space and time Photography Is Not a Crime Photography and the law Physical determinism Physical law Physical object Physical properties Physicalism Pierre Simon Laplace Plato Plotinus Political freedom Political liberty Political philosophy Popper's three worlds Population ethics Pornography laws by region Positive liberty Practical Ethics Pragmatic ethics Pragmatism Praise Pratītyasamutpāda Precept Predestination Predeterminism Prevenient grace Primary consciousness Priming (psychology)Principia Ethica Principle Principle of alternate possibilities Principle of sufficient reason Problem of evil Problem of future contingents Problem of mental causation Problem of other minds Proclus Professional ethics Programming ethics Prohibitionism Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics Property (philosophy)Property dualism Proposition Proprioception Prospection Prostitution law Protestant work ethic Proximate and ultimate causation Psilocybin decriminalization in the United States Psyche (consciousness journal)Psychic determinism Psychological determinism Psychology Psychophysical parallelism Punishment Purusha Qualia Quality (philosophy)Quantum gravity Quantum indeterminacy Quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics of time travel Quantum mind Quasi-realism R. G. Collingwood R. M. Hare Readiness potential Reality Reason Reasons and Persons Reciprocal determinism Reductive physicalism Reentry (neural circuitry)Reflexive monism Reformed tradition Rehabilitation (penology)Reincarnation Relations (philosophy)Relativism Religious naturalism René Descartes Research ethics Retrocausality Revisionary materialism Richard Holton Right-libertarianism Right of asylum Right of self-defense Right to Internet access Right to a fair trial Right to be forgotten Right to clothing Right to die Right to food Right to health Right to housing Right to life Right to privacy Right to property Right to protest Right to repair Right to resist Right to silence Right to truth Rights Robert Kane (philosopher)Robert M. Sapolsky Robert Merrihew Adams Robert Sapolsky Roger Penrose Roger Wolcott Sperry Role ethics Romanization of Hebrew Rousseauism Roy Baumeister Rudolf Carnap Rudolf Steiner Sakshi (witness)Sam Harris (author)Samkhya Sanskrit Saul Kripke Saul Smilansky Schizophrenia Schopenhauer Science Science fiction Scientific American Scientific realism Scientism Secondary consciousness Secular ethics Self Self-agency Self-determination Self-discipline Self-efficacy Self-fulfilling prophecy Self-ownership Sense of agency Sentience Sentientism Sexual and reproductive health and rights Sexual ethics Shia Shoals, Indiana Sic Sigmund Freud Simulacra and Simulation Social determinism Social philosophy Sociology of human consciousness Socrates Solipsism Sophist (dialogue)Soul Soul (spirit)Spacetime Spiritualism (philosophy)Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Stanford University Press Stanislas Dehaene Stanley v. Georgia Stevan Harnad Steven Laureys Steven Pinker Stewardship Stochastic Stoicism Stream of consciousness (psychology)Stroke Stuart Hameroff Subconscious Subject and object (philosophy)Subjective character of experience Subjectivism Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy)Substance abuse Substance dependence Substance theory Substantial form Suffering Suffering-focused ethics Summa Theologica Superdeterminism Supervenience Susan Blackmore Susan Sauvé Meyer Susanne Bobzien Swami Vivekananda Sympathy Synapse Synergism Søren Kierkegaard Taoism Taxonomy (general)Technological determinism Ted Honderich Teleology Telos (philosophy)Temporal paradox The Astonishing Hypothesis The Conscious Mind The Emperor's New Mind The Enlightenment The Gospel Coalition The New York Review of Books The Phenomenology of Spirit The Philosophy of Freedom The Science of Consciousness The Theory of Moral Sentiments The Time Machine The World as Will and Representation The chicken or the egg Theodicy Theological determinism Theological fatalism Theological noncognitivism Theoretical physics Theory of everything Theory of forms Theory of mind Thing-in-itself Thiruvalluvar Thomas Aquinas Thomas Hobbes Thomas Metzinger Thomas Nadelhoffer Thomas Nagel Thomas Reid Thomism Thought Thought experiment Tic Tic disorder Timaeus (dialogue)Time Time in physics Time loop Time machine Time reversal symmetry Time travel Time travel in fiction Time viewer Tipler cylinder Tipler time machine Tirukkural Topfreedom Torah Torture Tourette syndrome Transcendental apperception True Will Trust (social science)Truth Truthmaker theory Type physicalism Type theory Type–token distinction U.S. House of Representatives Uncertainty principle Unconscious mind Unconsciousness Understanding Consciousness Universal (metaphysics)Universal Declaration of Human Rights Universal prescriptivism Unobservable Upanishads Utilitarianism Utilitarianism (book)Utility Vaisheshika Value (ethics)Value pluralism Value theory Van Stockum dust Vedanta Vice Victor J. Stenger Virtue Virtue ethics Visual masking Volition (psychology)Voltaire Voluntarism (philosophy)Vow What Is It Like to Be a Bat?Wheeler–Feynman time-symmetric theory Wider than the Sky Wilhelm Wundt Will (philosophy)Will to power Willard Van Orman Quine Willard van Orman Quine William Frankena William James William Kingdon Clifford William Lycan William Montgomery Watt William Seager (philosopher)William of Ockham Wolf Singer Wolfgang Köhler Wolfgang Pauli Work ethic Workers' right to access the toilet Wormhole Wrongdoing Xunzi (philosopher)Yoga Yogachara

69 concepts already in your glossary