Free will and determinism what are these two definitions?

Question

Explain in simple terms, please.

Answer 1

You are given many occasions in which you can react in several ways. When you alone choose the way you will react...it's your free will. Determinism is the reacting the way you want or not reacting at all.

Answer 2

Determinism is when ones mind is made up as a result of some forces or actions or when one is bent on doing something and the decision has been made already while free will is what one wants to do on his or her own that is not mandatory.

Answer 3

Free will: the ability to choose between different ways of acting.

Determinism: the belief that what one does is completely decided by the conditions at the time.

I don't believe they are opposites.

Answer 4

Free will:

The following meanings shows that free will is the
opposite of determinism:

"in philosophy, the theory that humans possess the ability to make choices guided by individual values and ideals rather than governed by external pressures or physical necessity. (Cf. determinism.)"

http://www.wordsmyth.net/live/home.php?script=search&matchent=free+will&matchtype=exact

The power of making choices without the constraint of fate or some other uncontrollable force, regarded as a human characteristic.
(Compare determinism).

http://www.allwords.com/query.php?SearchType=3&Keyword=Free+will&goquery=Find+it%21&Language=ENG

For many philosophers, to believe in free will is to believe that human beings can be the authors of their own actions and to reject the idea that human actions are determined by external conditions or fate. (See determinism, fatalism, and predestination.)

http://www.bartleby.com/59/5/freewill.html

Free Will and Determinism:

Animals seem to satisfy this criterion, and we typically think that only persons, and not animals, have free will. Let us then understand free will as the capacity unique to persons that allows them to control their actions.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/f/freewill.htm

power of independent action and choice: the ability to act or make choices as a free and autonomous being and not solely as a result of compulsion or predestination

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861690787

the power to act without the constraints of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one’s own discretion.

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/freewill?view=uk

the doctrine that the conduct of human beings expresses personal choice and is not simply determined by physical or divine forces.

http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/free+will

The power of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate or divine will.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/39/F0313900.html

The words fate, divine will, predestination etc
used above mean determinism.

The law of cause and effect is known in philosophical
texts also. There is a very specific law in science.
"For every action, there is an equal and opposite
reaction". If you write it in English, it becomes
Newton's Law. If you write it in Sanskrit, it becomes
Law of Karma.

http://www.search.com/search?q=karma

Karma is not fatalism. The very expression
"for every action" indicates that we have freedom
of action. What Karma says is that we should be
cautious about the reaction which is inevitable.

Answer 5

one answer: wikepedia