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Does free will exist? The question has fuelled debates spanning from philosophy to psychology and religion. The answer has major implications, and the stakes are high. This book suggests there is powerful evidence that conscious decisions play an important role in our lives, and knowledge about situational influences can allow people to respond to those influences rationally rather than with blind obedience. The text also explores the meaning and ramifications of free will.

My topic lies on conceptual terrain that is quite familiar to philosophers. For others, a bit of background may be in order. In light of what has filtered down from quantum mechanics, few philosophers today believe that the universe is causally deterministic (or "deterministic," for short). That is, to use Peter van Inwagen's succinct definition of "determinism," few philosophers believe that "there is at any instant exactly one physically possible future." Even so, partly for obvious historical reasons, philosophers continue to argue about whether free will and moral responsibility are compatible with determinism. Compatibilists argue for compatibility, and incompatibilists argue against it. Some incompatibilists maintain that free will and moral responsibility are illusions. But most are libertarians, libertarianism being the conjunction of incompatibilism and the thesis that at least some human beings are possessed of free will and moral responsibility.