Free will refers to the ability to choose a course of action from a various amount of alternatives. This concept is often linked to the conscious mind, and how people have the ability to take action based on their desired goals. The common belief is that “conscious will is considered to be the starting point of goal pursuit” (Custers & Aarts). However, recent studies have argued that goal pursuit is not necessarily all conscious, and that some actions are based off unconscious goals. Once a goal is set, then one’s behaviors do not have to be consciously monitored, thus becoming unconscious. Sigmund Freud was the founder of the unconscious mind, or the id as he labeled it. The id refers to the processes in which individuals make themselves unaware, such as repressed memories. Philosophers like Ruud Custers and Hen Aarts have taken Freud’s theory and conducted experiments in order to prove that there is an unconscious will where certain goal pursuits can be orchestrated outside of the conscious mind. In contrast, other philosophers, such as Carl Jung, take a different approach when analyzing the unconscious by splitting it into two areas: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Through these different perspectives, the argument of how the unconscious will interacts with free will has arisen.
