# Contested concept: free will

_**What you are reading**: one contested-concept page in Deliberus's deliberation graph. Deliberus maps human reasoning — including claims that are contested, mistaken, or extreme — so that disagreement can be examined precisely. A claim's presence here is not an endorsement: the graph records that someone argued it, how it connects to other reasoning, and how far scrutiny has gotten. The metadata on this page describes the state of that scrutiny, not the truth of the claim._

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- **Contestedness**: semantic
- **Diagnosis**: Disputes over whether free will is compatible with determinism, exists at all, or is a pseudo-problem often reduce to talking past each other about what the term refers to.
- **Canonical**: `/concept/free will` (data: `/concept/free will.json`)

## Senses in use
- **Freedom of action: absence of external constraint or coercion; doing what one wills** — used in 6 claim(s)
- **Psychological capacity for reason-responsiveness or rational decision, or hierarchical desire structure** — used in 5 claim(s)
- **Metaphysically free will, said by some to be never coherently defined, or senseless** — used in 4 claim(s)
- **Ultimate or originating cause of actions; an undetermined capacity to choose** — used in 4 claim(s)
- **Higher-level, non-physical phenomenon on par with agency** — used in 3 claim(s)

## Claims using this term
- [The liberty of the man consists in this, that he finds no stop in doing what he has the will, desire, or inclination to do.](/claim/claim_0675e93e0c32.md) _(sense: Freedom of action: absence of external constraint or coercion; doing what one wills)_
- [Compatibilists often associate freedom of will with the ability to make rational decisions.](/claim/claim_08d6476a1128.md) _(sense: Psychological capacity for reason-responsiveness or rational decision, or hierarchical desire structure)_
- [Many contemporary compatibilists, instead of treating free will as freedom of action as classical compatibilists did, identify free will as…](/claim/claim_0e4962943ef6.md) _(sense: Psychological capacity for reason-responsiveness or rational decision, or hierarchical desire structure)_
- [Liberty then is only and can be only the power to do what one will.](/claim/claim_15d68c584068.md) _(sense: Freedom of action: absence of external constraint or coercion; doing what one wills)_
- [Some philosophers and thinkers conceive of free will as the capacity to make choices undetermined by past events.](/claim/claim_25d382984705.md) _(sense: Ultimate or originating cause of actions; an undetermined capacity to choose)_
- [[Many contemporary compatibilists identify free will as] a psychological capacity, such as to direct one's behavior in a way that is respon…](/claim/claim_25e45a33b65c.md) _(sense: Psychological capacity for reason-responsiveness or rational decision, or hierarchical desire structure)_
- [The notion of free will is senseless](/claim/claim_27792107de64.md) _(sense: Metaphysically free will, said by some to be never coherently defined, or senseless)_
- [Classical compatibilists considered free will nothing more than freedom of action](/claim/claim_3bcf0b33b51a.md) _(sense: Freedom of action: absence of external constraint or coercion; doing what one wills)_
- [Some "modern compatibilists", such as Harry Frankfurt and Daniel Dennett, argue free will is simply freely choosing to do what constraints …](/claim/claim_5c4167bde7a8.md) _(sense: Freedom of action: absence of external constraint or coercion; doing what one wills)_
- [One is free of will if, had one counterfactually wanted to do otherwise, one could have done otherwise without physical impediment.](/claim/claim_62c56ceb3fcd.md) _(sense: Freedom of action: absence of external constraint or coercion; doing what one wills)_
- ["Metaphysically free will" has never been coherently defined](/claim/claim_6acef1d9de00.md) _(sense: Metaphysically free will, said by some to be never coherently defined, or senseless)_
- [The incompatibilist positions are concerned with a sort of "metaphysically free will"](/claim/claim_7b73243d0916.md) _(sense: Metaphysically free will, said by some to be never coherently defined, or senseless)_
- [A person's will [their effective first-order desire] is free if it was the desire the person wanted to act upon, that is, the person's seco…](/claim/claim_9266612d0024.md) _(sense: Psychological capacity for reason-responsiveness or rational decision, or hierarchical desire structure)_
- [[In Alexander of Aphrodisias], what makes us have control over things is the fact that we are causally undetermined in our decision and thu…](/claim/claim_95e1e37ba635.md) _(sense: Ultimate or originating cause of actions; an undetermined capacity to choose)_
- [Most incompatibilists reject the idea that freedom of action consists simply in "voluntary" behavior. Most incompatibilists insist, rather,…](/claim/claim_97d971f30ebe.md) _(sense: Ultimate or originating cause of actions; an undetermined capacity to choose)_
- [If a person has free will, then they are the ultimate cause of their actions.](/claim/claim_a4110b770824.md) _(sense: Ultimate or originating cause of actions; an undetermined capacity to choose)_
- [Free will is not a physical phenomenon.](/claim/claim_b09b8acb4b3e.md) _(sense: Higher-level, non-physical phenomenon on par with agency)_
- [John Locke denied that the phrase "free will" made any sense](/claim/claim_d4e366cdb737.md) _(sense: Metaphysically free will, said by some to be never coherently defined, or senseless)_
- [Free will is a higher level activity that "cannot be captured in a description of neural activity or of muscle activation..."](/claim/claim_deefe45b09d4.md) _(sense: Higher-level, non-physical phenomenon on par with agency)_
- [Compatibilism often regards the agent as free by virtue of their [the agent's] reason.](/claim/claim_e57b4878ee0a.md) _(sense: Psychological capacity for reason-responsiveness or rational decision, or hierarchical desire structure)_
- [Free will is a higher-level phenomenon on par with agency and intentionality.](/claim/claim_e7093d362fec.md) _(sense: Higher-level, non-physical phenomenon on par with agency)_
- [Free will holds as long as humans are not externally constrained or coerced](/claim/claim_fd3b01a669d9.md) _(sense: Freedom of action: absence of external constraint or coercion; doing what one wills)_