Free will in antiquity is a philosophical and theological concept. One finds scholarly debate on the ‘origin’ of the notionof free will in Western philosophy. Augustine(354–4CE) and Frede in the Stoic Epictetus(c.

55–c. 1CE)). But this debate presupposes a fairlyparticular and highly conceptualized concept of free will, withDihle’s later ‘origin’ reflecting his having a yetmore particular concept in view than Frede. If, instea we look moregenerally for philosophical r. See full list on plato. As should be clear from this short discussion of the history of theidea of free will, free will has traditionally been conceived of as akind of power to control one’s choices and actions.
When anagent exercises free will over her choices and actions, her choicesand actions are up to her. But up to her in what sense? Asshould be clear from our historical survey, two common (andcompatible) are: (i) up to her in the sense that she is ableto choose otherwise, or at minimum that she is abl. Most philosophers theorizing about free will take themselves to beattempting to analyze a near-universal power of mature human beings. But as we’ve noted above, there have been free will skeptics inboth ancient and (especially) modern times.

In this section,we summarize the main lines of argument both for and against thereality of human freedom of will. (more…)