Free Will

This entry provides an overview of various theories of free will. It links free will to ethics by way of a connection between free will and moral responsibility. Free will is conceptualized as the ability to act freely, making free action the more basic notion. The kind of free action at issue is earmarked to moral responsibility. Among the major topics discussed are compatibilist (including semicompatibilist) theories of free will and three kinds of libertarian theory of free will: agent‐causal, event‐causal, and noncausal. Grounds offered for rejecting these various theories are discussed, as is the question of whether we ever act freely. Other topics receiving significant attention include Frankfurt‐style thought experiments, the ability to do otherwise than one did, what it is for actions of ours to be up to us, kinds of agential control, the bearing of luck on control, and the Consequence Argument. Key terms are defined, including compatibilism, determinism, incompatibilism, indeterminism, and libertarianism.