Is free will reconcilable with a purely physical world?

Question

Many are of the opinion that there is no metaphysical world beyond the material that we can sense, and that everything is therefore governed by physical cause and effect (some believe that we cannot know if there is anything beyond our world, but that it is possible that something metaphysical exists).

Answer 1

The classic position reconciling free will with purely physical determinism has been called "soft determinism" or "compatibilism." Philosopher John Stuart Mill has been most associated with that view. This view usually denies indeterminism or random chance events. More recently some compatiblists rely on indeterminism and the random events of quantum physics to argue for free will.