The basics of free will If will is defined as "the faculty by which a person decides on and initiates action" then the next logical step is to define the word "free". If by "free" you mean a decision of the "will" that is not determined by any causal factors then that becomes difficult to nail down as it becomes an infinite regress. But if you define "free" as the ability of the "will" to decide, or choose, between a multiplicity of actions and possibilities that it has become aware of then that is simply that particular faculty of the will that in the end makes that decision. That is to say that given our limited understanding of a) how the faculty of the will operates within our biological and environmental constraints, b) our limited understanding of how that complex process projects possible future scenarios, c) and then how that process selects between the multiplicity of possible futures, then free will is a useful concept to define that process. Using that argument I then see no problem with that term as it is always grounded in specific instances and is a useful term we use to describe that process.