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Free Will: Evidence for the Existence of Soul

  • Seyyed Jaaber Mousavirad ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: January 29, 2025

Abstract

Free will is an intuitive reality that all humans apprehend in their actions. Moral responsibility also stems from this freedom of will. This article first explains that the strong human intuition about free will cannot be dismissed as an illusion. It then examines the notion that a physical being cannot possess free will because it implies the ability to both perform and abstain from an action. In the physical world, all human actions are determined by preceding causes, leaving no room to avoid an action volitionally. Building on this, the article concludes that free will becomes plausible only when rooted in the existence of the soul. Consequently, free will serves as independent evidence for the existence of an immaterial soul.


Corresponding author: Seyyed Jaaber Mousavirad, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran, E-mail: 

  1. Conflict of interests: The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

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Received: 2024-08-27
Accepted: 2024-11-07
Published Online: 2025-01-29
Published in Print: 2025-04-28

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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