Many educated people today dismiss free will as an illusion and instead view themselves and other people as determined by their environment and their genetics. Objectivism offers a very different view. It holds that the key to understanding yourself as a human being is that your mind functions by choice. This gives you a fundamental, delimited control over your own life and actions, which you can choose to exert or not. Further, a proper understanding of free will shapes a proper understanding of good and evil and of the nature and personal importance of justice.

Onkar Ghate is senior fellow and chief content officer at the Ayn Rand Institute. He specializes in Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, and is ARI’s senior instructor and editor. He publishes and lectures on Rand’s philosophy and fiction, including applications of Objectivism in the culture, and has been a guest on national radio and television programs.

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