FreeWill/TheoryOfWillPower

FreeWill

The "Theory of Willpower" refers to a general approach to the question of "free will" which denies the rhetoric of "free and unfree", on the grounds that nothing is "free" in the entirely unfettered sense. The theory of free will should not be taken as an argument that anything that can be imagined can be realized. Thus there is the distinction made in the language, the question of free vs unfree will is change to a question of strong or weak will. The concept of choices as such, and not as illusion, plays a key role, although there is still illusion in our choices.

The theory furthermore does not require or advocate, necessarilly, a seat of the consciousness, a centralized location which "does the willing"... instead willing can be taken as a phenomenon of, like all phenomena, a system. The system is the brain or, actually, the whole body, and this can be distributed. Materialist theories of will (neurology) seem to imply it is most likely distributed. Also, the theory of willpower approach does not require that will is conscious, or is exactly what we experience as the "conscious". There is much illusion in willing, the illusion of control, and the conscious mind spends a lot of time justifying ideas which it recieved from the vast willing unconscious.

Many theories of this sort can be called theories of willpower, and in fact contradict, the main point being escaping the dichotomy of free/unfree, without the gymnastics of compatibilism.