Córdoba, Mariana and Dupré, John and Ferro, Maximiliano and Holik, Federico and Fernandez Larrosa, Pablo Nicolás and Blaustein, Matías (2025) What is Liberty? Philosophical and interdisciplinary perspectives on Free Will. [Preprint]
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
Free_Will.pdf Download (709kB) |
Abstract
The concept of free will has been a central topic in philosophy, theology, and science for centuries. However, its understanding remains fraught with complexities, particularly in defining the scope and limitations of freedom in human and non-human beings. This article explores which ontological conditions are required for the emergence of free will, arguing that determinism and reductionism are incompatible both with the existence and understanding of stricto sensu free and willed action. By analysing some developments in key areas such as neuroscience, molecular biology and quantum physics, we examine free will in relation to decision-making, consciousness and social context to argue that only anti-reductionist ontologies compatible with some form of possibilism can provide space for free will to exist. Moving beyond traditional notions, we introduce a more specific definition of free will-based actions, distinguishing between general, contingent, and disruptive free will-based actions. Disruptive free will actions lie beyond deterministic and probabilistic laws acting at lower levels of reality, enabling creative and voluntary actions. These actions can be exerted by a variety of entities, including individuals, social groups and even artificial intelligence systems. This interdisciplinary ontology of freedom fosters further inquiry into how agency may operate across different systems and opens new avenues for understanding moral, ethical and political implications of free will and liberty.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Keywords: | Liberty, Freedom, Free will, Free will based-actions | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Science and Society |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Depositing User: | Dr. Federico Holik | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 30 Dec 2025 17:53 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified: | 30 Dec 2025 17:53 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Item ID: | 27671 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Science and Society |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Date: | 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/27671 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}