Across history, people have grappled with the question of freedom. Many have over time, due to the happenings in their life, wondered whether they have any control over anything in their life. For some other people, freedom is a given. It is exemplified by they ability to make choices. Choice implies freedom i.e. if there is no freedom to choose, there is no choice. However, in other people’s conception, even in the face of choices, one is influenced on what to choose and can not claim to be free; he or she can not choose anything else apart from what the forces that control him or her incline him or her towards (Taylor 143). This paper looks into free will as a phenomenon. The paper seeks to establish to what extent human beings can claim to be free. This paper, in agreement with compatibilists, will seek to establish that although determined to some extent, there is a lot that human beings determine. A human being can only be “a determined auto-determiner”. What this means is that, in human choices, there is always an element of determinism and freedom. To illustrate that human beings are “determined auto-determiners”, I will first discuss the causal notion of determinism. Causal determinism is based on the fact that for every effect there is always a cause and the cause informs the nature of the effect. Based on this kind of basis, hard determinists have posited that humans are determined and free will is an illusion. On the other end of the spectrum are indeterminists. Indeterminists argue that much chaos and unpredictability can be discerned in nature. For example, considering human behavior, it often happens that given certain conditions one is expected to behave in a certain way but he or she does not. Despite of that, the indeterminist view is also untenable. Faced with the two extremes, I will argue that a compatibilist approach is more realistic. Hard determinists or indeterminist have many objections to the compatibilist approach. However, through analyzing some of the possible objections by hard determinists and indeterminists, the viability of the compatibilist view will be illustrated. There are people who contend that mankind is not free by any chance. They postulate that for a thing to be there must be a cause that facilitates its being. The cause of a thing defines what the thing is and all its characteristics. Based on the principle of universal causation, Aristotle posited the first cause, the prime mover or the unmoved mover. He argued that each thing has an efficient and primary cause that determines its existence. Like Aristotle, Determinists believe that everything is caused and the cause determines the essence or ‘whatness’ of each given being. A thing can not be more than what its essence allows (Taylor 137). This is the first level of determination i.e. that we are determined by our ‘whatness’ or essence. The essence of something is what makes a thing what it is. The essence of all things is predetermined by causes that produce them. Each of the causes is explained by other causes. However, this regression can not be endless. According to Aristotle, at the end of the regression is an ‘uncaused cause’. St. Thomas Aquinas took up Aristotle’s ideas and affi