Free will

Free will is the capacity to make choices that are not wholly determined by prior causes or external constraints. Its status concerns whether agency can coexist with causal determination.

Determinism: The view that every event is fixed by prior conditions and the laws of nature. If determinism is true, the challenge is explaining how choices can remain free.
Agent causation: The view that agents, rather than only prior events, can cause actions. It offers a model in which a person initiates a choice without being determined by earlier events.
Causal determinism: The thesis that the past and laws of nature entail every later event. It specifies the form of determination most often considered a threat to free will.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose works address voluntary action, choice, and responsibility. His account of voluntary action established enduring questions about control and blame.
Moral responsibility: The status of being appropriately praised or blamed for an action. Free will is often treated as a condition for deserving praise or blame.
Compatibilism: The view that free will can exist even if determinism is true. It locates freedom in acting according to one's motives without coercion.
Reasons-responsiveness: The capacity of an agent's decision-making mechanism to recognize and respond to reasons. Compatibilist accounts use this capacity to distinguish free action from compulsion.
Agency: The capacity of an entity to act intentionally and produce effects. Free will is a stronger account of agency, focused on control over choices.
David Hume: An eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher who defended a compatibilist account of liberty and necessity. He argued that freedom can mean acting according to one's will without external constraint.
Criminal responsibility: Legal accountability for conduct that satisfies the requirements of a criminal offense. Questions about control and compulsion influence how law assigns culpability.

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