ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on analysis of free will and determinism. In exhibiting purposeful, intended behaviour, it is commonly believed that a person exercises choice. This definition of free will and also being intuitively obvious, has the advantage that it fits comfortably with the circumstances under which one can hold a person responsible for his actions. In their experimental work, psychologists are in the business of discovering laws of human behaviour; and it is often supposed that if such laws can be discovered, then this, in itself, will show that the behaviour is the result of causal processes rather than being the result of an exercise of free will. In the case of human beings, the discovery of laws of behaviour is consistent with behaviour being either caused or being a result of the exercise of free will. Therefore, any psychologist who argues that the discovery of laws of human behaviour implies that one does not have free will is wrong.
