View synonyms for free will

free will

noun

free and independent choice; voluntary decision:
You took on the responsibility of your own free will.
Philosophy. the doctrine that the conduct of human beings expresses personal choice and is not simply determined by physical or divine forces.

free will

1. the apparent human ability to make choices that are not externally determined
2. the doctrine that such human freedom of choice is not illusory Compare determinism
3. ( as modifier )
  a free-will decision
the ability to make a choice without coercion
he left of his own free will: I did not influence him

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 .)

It was the only way she had to exercise her free-will in its desperate struggle with necessity.

Philosophy tells us that free-will is an illusion, and then boasts of the boldness of such a declaration.

No, we had roamed about and had come back to our dear friends of our own free-will, feeling there was no place like home!

Closely connected with these were predestination and grace, and then "fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute."

All virtue consists in the free-will, and hence virtue is called an elective or voluntary habit.

April 19, 2024tortuous

[tawr-choo-uhs ]

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