Definition
Free will is generally understood as the capacity of rational agents that allows them to choose a course of action from a set of open possibilities.
Introduction
It is typically assumed that humans have a unique volitional capacity as rational agents to choose our actions from a range of open possibilities. But just what this capacity for free will amounts to, and how it can be consistent with our best scientific understanding of the world, has proven to be extremely difficult to articulate. Since our capacity for free will is widely thought to be connected to our conception of moral responsibility, and thus the social practices involved in praising, blaming, rewarding, and punishing, the debate over free will has implications for many of the institutions that make social life possible.
Free Will
Philosophers have debated whether and to what extent humans have free will for over two millennia. Nearly every aspect of the debate is a serious point of...
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References
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Evans, J. (2016). Free Will. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1468-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1468-1
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