free will
| 1. | free and independent choice; voluntary decision: You took on the responsibility of your own free will. |
| 2. | Philosophy. the doctrine that the conduct of human beings expresses personal choice and is not simply determined by physical or divine forces. |
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| free will n.
[Middle English fre wil, translation of Late Latin līberum arbitrium : Latin līberum, neuter of līber, free + Latin arbitrium, will.] |
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Free will
Free will\ 1. A will free from improper coercion or restraint. To come thus was I not constrained, but did On my free will. --Shak. 2. The power asserted of moral beings of willing or choosing without the restraints of physical or absolute necessity.Cite This Source
free will
The ability to choose, think, and act voluntarily. For many philosophers, to believe in free will is to believe that human beings can be the authors of their own actions and to reject the idea that human actions are determined by external conditions or fate. (See determinism, fatalism, and predestination.)
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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free will
in humans, the power or capacity to choose among alternatives or to act in certain situations independently of natural, social, or divine restraints. Free will is denied by those who espouse any of various forms of determinism. Arguments for free will are based on the subjective experience of freedom, on sentiments of guilt, on revealed religion, and on the universal supposition of responsibility for personal actions that underlies the concepts of law, reward, punishment, and incentive. In theology, the existence of free will must be reconciled with God's omniscience and goodness (in allowing man to choose badly), and with divine grace, which allegedly is necessary for any meritorious act. A prominent feature of modern Existentialism is the concept of a radical, perpetual, and frequently agonizing freedom of choice. Jean-Paul Sartre, for example, speaks of the individual "condemned to be free" even though his situation may be wholly determined.
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