Free will is linked to the ability to act according to one's own will.
The concept of free will is used to refer to the ability to act according to one's own reflection and will . The notion is linked to philosophy, psychology and religion.
It is understood that free will is the power that a human being has to make decisions according to their individual choice . This means that the individual is not forced or conditioned, at least absolutely.
With free will, the person can choose whether to act or not. From this it follows that each subject has responsibility for his actions , since he has the possibility of not acting and, therefore, not producing the effects of his act.
Free will and responsibility
Free will, in short, makes people responsible for their actions. From this faculty comes the merit of rewards or, on the contrary, punishments, which are established according to moral principles.
If, thanks to free will, man and woman can choose between various alternatives, even creating new ones, there is no law of nature or a god that is in a position to bend their will. However, many thinkers throughout history have questioned the existence of free will for multiple reasons, alluding to issues such as the link between the body and the mind or the incidence of chance.
The notion of free will is usually analyzed from a religious point of view based on the link between the human being and divinity.
Considerations about its existence
Unconscious brain processes are usually one of the most used reasons when refuting the existence of free will. According to this position, someone can believe that they decide "freely" when, in reality, they are obeying an instruction from their brain , in turn derived from physiological, chemical processes, etc.
Among the various points of view regarding the existence of free will is determinism , a philosophical doctrine according to which any physical event is linked to the cause-consequence chain, which is impossible to break and determines phenomena such as actions and thought. From its name we can deduce that the present state "determines" the future.
Free will according to libertarianism
This very close union between the present and the future, between the cause and the consequence, tells us about a reality in which free will has no place, since there are not several alternative consequences to the same cause. Libertarianism enters this framework, which maintains the following statements in philosophical discussions about freedom:
* determinism is not compatible with free will;
* Human beings do enjoy free will;
* determinism is false.
Those who adhere to these ideas also adhere to incompatibilism , a view according to which the same action cannot be predetermined and free. One carried out freely represents only one of several possibilities. This point of view rejects the existence of a causal chain that determines the individual's steps; instead, he makes himself a creator of causal chains .
The position of indeterminism
For indeterminism , which is considered a form of libertarianism, free will is real and for this reason our actions are an effect without a cause. Another form of libertarianism is agency theory , according to which choosing between determinism and indeterminism represents a "false dichotomy", meaning that there are more alternatives to these two extremes.
According to the principles of this theory , free will revolves around the relationship that exists between the "agent" and the "event", so that it is he who causes it through his own decisions, which he takes into account. freedom. On the other hand is compatibilism , a view that defines free will as something that arises from an internal cause, such as beliefs and thoughts about oneself.