{"id":"mymindmine-knowledge-free-will-v1","slug":"free-will","domain":"philosophy","title":"Free Will","deck":"The philosophical problem of meaningful control over action.","directAnswer":"Free will concerns whether and in what sense agents possess meaningful control over their actions. Major disputes concern the ability to do otherwise, sourcehood, self-determination, causal determination, and moral responsibility.","mechanism":["Compatibilist accounts argue that relevant freedom can coexist with causal determination under certain conditions.","Incompatibilist accounts argue that the kind of freedom required for responsibility conflicts with determinism.","The debate spans metaphysics, ethics, action theory, and empirical questions about human cognition."],"whyItMatters":["Brajology approaches agency from a different layer: not only whether action is metaphysically free, but how much of the action space is psychologically visible and permitted."],"questions":["Do humans have free will?","What is compatibilism?","Does free will require the ability to do otherwise?"],"related":["agency","decision-making","personal-identity","epistemology"],"sources":[{"label":"Stanford Encyclopedia: Free Will","url":"https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/","publisher":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy"}],"updated":"2026-09-20","canonicalUrl":"https://www.mymindmine.com/philosophy/free-will","author":{"name":"John Brajer","url":"https://www.mymindmine.com/people/john-brajer"},"publisher":"MyMindMine","knowledgeSystem":"MyMindMine Knowledge System v1","epistemicBoundary":{"externalSources":"Sources support the external factual orientation.","originalLayer":"Brajology and MyMindMine interpretations are original framework material and are not attributed to external sources."}}