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Philosophy vocabulary · Metaphysics

Free will

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

nounCore term

In philosophy, free will means: The ability to choose between different possible actions in a way that makes us genuinely responsible for what we do.

In Turkish: özgür irade

How it is used

The free will debate asks whether this ability is compatible with determinism. Compatibilists say yes; incompatibilists say no and split into libertarians (we are free, so determinism is false) and hard determinists (determinism is true, so we are not free).

Example sentences

  1. If every event has a prior cause, is there any room left for free will?

  2. Compatibilists define free will as acting on your own desires without coercion.

Common collocations

  • the free will debate
  • have free will
  • deny free will
  • free will and determinism
  • determinismThe view that every event, including human choices, is fixed by earlier causes together with the laws of nature.
  • causationThe relation between a cause and its effect, in which one event or state brings about another.
  • metaphysicsThe branch of philosophy that studies the basic nature of reality: what exists, what things are, and ideas such as time, cause, identity and possibility.
  • consciousnessThe state of having experiences, of there being something it is like to see, feel or think; also the state of being awake and aware.

More terms: Metaphysics

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