What are some different views on free will and what do they mean?

Here are the main views on whether or not humans have free will:Hard Determinism: Our will and actions are completely controlled by external factors (God, the laws of nature and causation, etc). You can refer to different types of determinism, such as psychological determinism and theological determinism, which we can go through in more detail if you like. Soft Determinism (more commonly referred to as Compatibilism: Our will and actions are controlled by external factors (God, the laws of nature and causation, etc). However, we have free will if 'free will' is defined as being free to act within our character/nature. Libertarianism: We have free will, whether or not some of our actions are influenced by external factors such as our upbringing. Philosophers who hold that libertarianism is correct are likely to disagree on what kind of freedom we have: freedom/liberty of spontaneity or freedom/liberty of indifference. We can go over these if you like.Note: These are the (brief) definitions of the terms that you should work with at A Level. If these are frustrating or you are now worried that determinism is true and you aren't free, don't worry! You can read much more widely (perhaps when you've finished your A Level...) and see that out in the real world of philosophy, this issue is spoken about very differently.