A lecture will try to enlighten NIU students Wednesday to some age-old philosophical problems.

“Free Will, Finitude and Possibility” will be the topic of a discussion by Tomis Kapitan, an assistant visiting professor from North Carolina, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Holmes Student Center, Room 305.

Kapitan said the lecture will deal with the traditional problem of free will.

“It deals with the question of whether human beings have free will, especially if everything is caused—if that’s the case,” he said. “I’m presenting an account of free will that attempts to explain just what free will is.”

Kapitan said he also plans to incorporate the philosophical question of “In what sense are we really free?”

“Another problem deals with the concept of freedom and its relation to moral responsibility,” Kapitan said.

He said when people do not hold others responsible for their actions, they believe that everything is “caused” or predestined.

“How can we be free if we’re products of nature?” Kapitan said. “Then we run into the problem of no free will.”

He said his lecture, sponsored by the philosophy department, will offer his solutions to these problems.