Free Will is, roughly, the capacity of an agent to make choices. The existence of free will is independent of whether physical determinism is true or false.
Many people believe they have free will, but it may actually be just an illusion.
Depending on your views on the truth or falsity of physical determinism, and your views on whether free will exists, you would fit somewhere in the space below:
| Free Will does not exist | Free Will exists | |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Determinism | Hard Determinism | Compatibilism |
| No Physical Determinism | Hard Incompatibilism | Metaphysical Libertarianism |
Steve Pinker:
Dan Dennett:
Michio Kaku
When you have a lot of time to read or watch:
Free will is often discussed along with the notion of "purpose" though it is not all the same. Some people think the lack of free will would imply they must have no purpose, but why would that be the case? Why are free will and purpose different?
"Purpose" can mean many different things. You might ask: Does the Universe have a purpose? A desired outcome? Many people have asked and answered that question. A few scholars and scientists were recently asked for essay responses to this question. Neil deGrasse Tyson's answer was set to a little video:
A separate question is whether individuals have a purpose. You can have a universe without purpose but subscribe to individuals having purpose within a purposeless universe. There's no real contradiction; we're just working at different levels.
The compatibility between the universe having no purpose and there being a purpose to each of our lives is shown at this interview at bigthink.com.
There are a couple TED talks related to purpose: