Augustine tells us that we are given Free Will in order that we might do right in the world, that we will follow what God intended us to do. He says that "If man is good, and cannot act rightly unless he wills to do so, then he must have free will, without which he cannot act rightly. We must not believe that God gave us free will so that we might sin, just because sin is committed through free will" (73).

The big question is whether we are determined by previous events to do what we do, or whether we can act outside of these influences, whether we are free to do as we wish regardless of the circumstances. Determinists would argue that every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. Determinism is the belief that all seeming acts of the will are actually the result of causes that determine them.

Free Will might be defined as the absence of fate and/or determinism.

_{Saint Augustine. "On the Free Will of Choice." Medieval Philosophy. Forrest Baird and Walter Kaufman. Third Edition. 73-99.}