Free Will Versus Determinism The controversy between free will and determinism has been argued about for years. What is the difference between the two? Looking in a dictionary, free will is the power, attributed to human beings, of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate or divine will. Free will allows free choice. Yet, determinism is the total opposite. Determinism has this definition: The philosophical doctrine that every event, act, and decision is the inescapable consequence of antecedents that are independent of the human will. Determinism sta