Free Will: Determined or Random?

This is the perennial objection to freewill: How can free will be possible? If something isn’t determined, it’s random.

However, determined and random are contraries, not contradictories. True, if something is determined it isn’t random, and vice versa, but perhaps there is some third alternative?

Physical theory shows there is: namely, that sequences of events (at least on the microphysical level) conform to indetermininistic probabilities — so, neither determined nor random.

While I believe it is hasty to base human freedom entirely in (say) the theorems of QM (though important work has been done on their compatibility) it offers an important parallel.

In other words, the key to understanding human freedom is to combine a constrained indeterminism (objective probabilities) with intentional (reasons based) action, or “rational willing.”