Who believed in free will?

The term "free will" (liberum arbitrium) was introduced by Christian philosophy (4th century CE). It has traditionally meant (until the Enlightenment proposed its own meanings) lack of necessity in human will, so that "the will is free" meant "the will does not have to be such as it is".
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What philosopher believed we have free will?

The great Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant reaffirmed this link between freedom and goodness. If we are not free to choose, he argued, then it would make no sense to say we ought to choose the path of righteousness.
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What did Plato believe about free will?

Plato believed that there is a constant battle with one's base desires. To achieve inner justice, an individual must liberate themselves from these impulses by acquiring the virtues of wisdom, courage, and temperance. Once an individual has mastered one's self, only then can that individual express free will.
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Did Thomas Hobbes believe in free will?

In short, the doctrine of Hobbes teaches that man is free in that he has the liberty to "do if he will" and "to do what he wills" (as far as there are no external impediments concerning the action he intends), but he is not "free to will", or to "choose his will".
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What philosopher does not believe in free will?

In Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche criticizes the concept of free will both negatively and positively. He calls it a folly resulting from extravagant pride of man; and calls the idea a crass stupidity.
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The great free will debate | Bill Nye, Michio Kaku, Robert Sapolsky, Steven Pinker



Did Socrates believe free will?

for socrates free will and self-control are one and the same, combined in his commitment to the doctrine that reason, properly cultivated, can and ought to be the all-controlling factor in human life.
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Does Aristotle believe in free will?

1) According to the Aristotle, free will and moral responsibility is determined by our character. 2) According to absolute free will (indeterminism), free actions cannot be determined in any fashion.
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Does Locke believe in free will?

John Locke took a 'hard determinist' position. This is the belief that moral agents have only preprogrammed choices, over which they have no control. A moral agent is not free to act — free will is no more than an illusion.
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Does Berkeley believe in free will?

Berkeley in fact believes that not only are actions as free according to idealism as they are according to realism, but the will, which determines actions, is itself free and undetermined in any type of causal manner.
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Does Rachels believe in free will?

Their argument against free will is that we do things as a result of the laws of nature to which we have no control of and since all actions are caused by things we have no control over then we cannot choose to act freely, thus we have no free will (Rachels & Rachels, 2012, p. 110).
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What does St Augustine say about free will?

God created the free will, and the free will to Adam and Eve and later every one, every one has a natural freedom will. Augustine thought that it was a kind of ability to exist in our soul, it is a kind of ability of reason and freedom.
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Did Greek philosophers believe in free will?

Greek philosophy had no precise term for "free will" as did Latin (liberum arbitrium or libera voluntas). The discussion was in terms of responsibility, what "depends on us" (in Greek ἐφ ἡμῖν).
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Does Plato support free will?

Plato offers a dual theory offering limited support for free will. Leibnitz includes theological tenets to make the case for predetermined outcomes. Hobbes and Hume contend that moral beliefs and ethical standards are conditions that support causal determinism.
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What did Hume believe in?

Hume was an Empiricist, meaning he believed "causes and effects are discoverable not by reason, but by experience". He goes on to say that, even with the perspective of the past, humanity cannot dictate future events because thoughts of the past are limited, compared to the possibilities for the future.
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What did George Berkeley believe?

Berkeley believed that only the minds' perceptions and the Spirit that perceives are what exists in reality; what people perceive every day is only the idea of an object's existence, but the objects themselves are not perceived.
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Was John Locke and empiricist?

John Locke (1632-1704), one of the founders of British Empiricism, is famous for insisting that all our ideas come from experience and for emphasizing the need for empirical evidence.
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What does Kant say about free will?

Equivalently, a free will is an autonomous will. Now, in GMS II, Kant had argued that for a will to act autonomously is for it to act in accordance with the categorical imperative, the moral law. Thus, Kant famously remarks: "a free will and a will under moral laws is one and the same" (ibd.)
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What did Locke believe?

In political theory, or political philosophy, John Locke refuted the theory of the divine right of kings and argued that all persons are endowed with natural rights to life, liberty, and property and that rulers who fail to protect those rights may be removed by the people, by force if necessary.
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What is freedom to Rousseau?

Simpson writes that Rousseau "defined moral freedom as autonomy, or 'obedience to the law that one has prescribed to oneself'" (92), though to illustrate this idea he gives an example of an alcoholic who is said not to possess moral freedom "because he is unable to live according to his own judgment about what is good ...
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Who first questioned free will?

The term "free will" (liberum arbitrium) was introduced by Christian philosophy (4th century CE). It has traditionally meant (until the Enlightenment proposed its own meanings) lack of necessity in human will, so that "the will is free" meant "the will does not have to be such as it is".
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Who is the father of free will?

Calvinism. John Calvin ascribed "free will" to all people in the sense that they act "voluntarily, and not by compulsion." He elaborated his position by allowing "that man has choice and that it is self-determined" and that his actions stem from "his own voluntary choosing."
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Does Leibniz believe in free will?

While Leibniz's philosophical system demands a certain sense of determinism about the universe, he does not want to deny the existence of free will. Leibniz thus seeks to substantiate a form or compatibilism(that is, a view which takes determinism to be compatible with free will).
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Does Aristotle believe in determinism?

In NE 3.5, Aristotle considers an argument against our responsibility for our actions that proceeds from psychological determinism.
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Which philosopher talked about God as way of freedom?

As Sartre defined it in Existentialism Is a Humanism, his philosophical project was to develop 'a consistent atheist position'. But metaphysical claims about God's existence interested him less than the role belief in God played in human experience—especially with respect to freedom.
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What is free will theory?

free will, in philosophy and science, the supposed power or capacity of humans to make decisions or perform actions independently of any prior event or state of the universe.
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