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Free will is the capacity or ability to choose between different possible courses of action. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, and other judgements which apply only to actions that are freely chosen.
Jun 8, 2024 · Free will, in humans, the power to make decisions or perform actions independently of any prior event or state of the universe. Arguments for free will are based on the common assumption of individual moral responsibility, among other considerations.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan 7, 2002 · The term “free will” has emerged over the past two millennia as the canonical designator for a significant kind of control over one’s actions.
Free will is the idea that humans have the ability to make their own choices and determine their own fates. Is a person’s will free, or are people's lives in...
- Behavioral science has made plain that individuals’ behavioral tendencies are influenced by genetics , as well as by factors in the environment tha...
- While there are many reasons to believe that a person’s will is not completely free of influence, there is not a scientific consensus against free...
- Determinism is the idea that every event, including every human action, is the result of previous events and the laws of nature. A belief in determ...
- Yes. This is called “compatibilism” or “soft determinism.” A compatibilist believes that even though events are predetermined, there is still some...
- The more people agree with claims of free will , some research suggests, the more they tend to favor internal rather than external explanations for...
- One idea proposed in philosophy is that systems of morality would collapse without a common belief that each person is responsible for his actions—...
- Mental illness can be thought of, in a sense, as involving additional constraints on the freedom of a person’s will (in the form of rigid thought p...
- There is limited evidence that people who believe more strongly in free will may tend to perceive at least some kinds of choices—such as buying ele...
- Two concepts from psychology that bear similarity to belief in free will are “ locus of control ” and “ self-efficacy .” Locus of control refers to...
Jan 7, 2002 · “Free Will” is a philosophical term of art for a particular sort of capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various alternatives. Which sort is the free will sort is what all the fuss is about.
Jan 27, 2022 · The first new-and-improved argument against free will — which is a scientific argument — starts with the observation that it doesn’t matter whether the full-blown hypothesis of determinism is true because it doesn’t matter whether all events are predetermined by prior events.
Free Will, Free Action and Moral Responsibility. Why should we even care whether or not agents have free will? Probably the best reason for caring is that free will is closely related to two other important philosophical issues: freedom of action and moral responsibility.
