For several thousand years, philosophers and theologians have argued about who or what is responsible for our actions. Some have proposed that our behavior is “determined” (controlled) by fate or by spiritual forces. This is also called theological determinism. Others argued for indeterminism, claiming that human behavior is essentially random and not caused or controlled by anything. But the most popular view has been that humans are “causal agents” who control their own actions and have moral responsibility for them. In other words, humans have free will.

In the 1970s, B. F. Skinner published an influential book with an alternative perspective called “Beyond Freedom and Dignity,” in which he argued for behavioral determinism. He theorized that behavior is not freely chosen, but instead is determined by our prior experience of rewards and punishments.

More recently, neuroscientists have proposed that every decision we make is determined by the pattern of neurons firing in our brain at that moment, which is itself caused by prior brain events. This neurological determinism would rule out the possibility of free will.