Free Will vs Determinism Essay
PHIL 110 Essay #2
February 15, 2010
GTF: Emma Jones
Free Will vs. Determinism The argument of whether we humans are pre determined to turn out how we are and act the way we do or if we are our own decision makers and have the freedom to choose our paths in life is a long–standing controversy. The ideas of Sartre, Freud, and Darwin are each strong in their own manner, yet Sartre presents the best and most realistic argument as to how we choose our path; we are in control of the things we do and responsible for the decisions we make. Not only this, but also, our decisions have an effect on our peer's choices, just as theirs affect ours. In this paper, I will argue that Jean–Paul Sartre makes the best argument of the three philosophers...show more content...
Our freedom to choose what we do and our consciousness are directly related; therefore, we make each of our choices for a reason.
With each and every decision we make in our lives, we are shaping our purpose and our meaning, but in making our own choices, we have to take on the responsibilities that come with that power. Every individual needs to be accountable for his own actions. Sartre explains in his exposition, "I cannot obtain any truth whatsoever about myself, except through the mediation of another" (199). This is saying that we need others to help us form our own decisions create and image of how we are to be perceived. It is our responsibility to establish our own value and make the best choices for us and our peers. Sartre goes on to argue, "When we say that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men" (188). As individuals part of a larger group of humans, we must come to the understanding that all of our choices will affect our peers and have an impact on the decisions they will choose to make which in return affect us. Many people turn to a higher power to pawn off responsibility for their actions. For example, acts of terrorism are often blamed on a higher power "speaking" to the group of terrorists telling them to do this, however, this higher power does not exist and the responsibility is completely on the individuals. Our choices and actions
Determinism Vs Free Will Essay
We live in a world that believes we have free will. Free, being the idea that we have the right of free choice in how we act. Let us assume that we choose our own behavior and we are self determined; free will vs. determinism, determinism: being the belief that all things, including human behavior, are determined. We look at the choices we make in our life and morality. Philosophers have been questioning this for several years; it begs the question if one believes in free will, not saying that the behavior of humans is random or uncaused but, the belief that we as human beings believe that to an extent one will have control of one's actions. Factors of external and internal events will play a role on what actions they will take. Free will is having the freedom to choose and having the ability to be determined by anything to act in a certain...show more content...
determinism debate can be looked at in the discussions of religion. In Christianity for example they are monotheistic, the belief that all things are created by one God. Regarding this issue, if God made man and all other things, including those which contribute to man's decisions and actions, then He has predetermined those decisions and actions. This means that people make their own decisions, without being forced, by God, to act one way or another. This could be compared to the way parents raise their children, but eventually will have no control over the decisions they make. The problem with this is that if God knows everything, then He knowing anything makes it predetermined.
Another topic, which addresses determinism vs. free will, is morality. According to the determinist view, a person's actions are completely predetermined. This means that people are not responsible for their actions. The government all over the world gives punishment for those who act outside the moral or criminal code. This being said that their society can blame or admire a person for an action which whom they have no control
Essay on Determinism and Free will
Determinism and Free will
Suppose that every event or action has a sufficient cause, which brings that event about. Today, in our scientific age, this sounds like a reasonable assumption. After all, can you imagine someone seriously claiming that when it rains, or when a plane crashes, or when a business succeeds, there might be no cause for it? Surely, human behavior is caused. It doesn't just happen for no reason at all. The types of human behavior for which people are held morally accountable are usually said to be caused by the people who engaged in that behavior. People typically cause their own behavior by making choices; thus, this type of behavior might be thought to be caused by your own choice–makings. This freedom to make...show more content...
Our common practice of thinking of others and ourselves as accountable is simply not justified!
There are those who think that our behavior is a result of free choice, but there are also others who believe we are servants of cosmic destiny, and that behavior is nothing but a reflex of heredity and environment. The position of determinism is that every event is the necessary outcome of a cause or set of causes, and everything is a consequence of external forces, and such forces produce all that happens. Therefore, according to this statement, man is not free.
If we accept the determinist argument and assume human behavior as a consequence of external factors rather than of free choice, then we must realize that our explanation of human behavior leaves no room for morality. If people do not choose their actions, then they are not really responsible for them, and there is no need for praising or blaming them. If determinism were true, then there would be no basis for human effort, for why should a person make an effort if what he or she does doesn't make a difference? If what will be will be, then one has an excuse for doing nothing. Life would not be so meaningful for people on deterministic grounds. Human life, as we know it, would not make much sense without the concept of freedom. In our everyday lives, there are many times when we have to make decisions; what we
Is Determinism True
Determinism is the idea that everyone's life has been predetermined for them and, that anything that happens could have not gone another way. Also if when we were born all of our environments, genes were already determined to set us up for what we were made to do then at no point could our actions be up to us because everything has already been predetermined. When a event is determined it is not the same as being predictable, this statement would make determinism true because there is no one who can predict what happens next. The deterministic view describes free will as something that is not really there, this view believes we have no freedom in the choices a person makes. To include, Determinist believe that there is no free choice, that
Determinism And Free Will
Determinists believe that everything that occurs in the world follows both from the laws of nature and also the prior state of the universe. As a result, they further believe that our actions are predetermined. Many philosophers believe this it offers a simple justification as to why people commit such actions and, even more broad, why history precedes in the way that it does.
As an incompatibilist, I believe that determinism rules out the possibility of human freedom. Determinism relies on a cause and effect relationship between the current state and the past. it uses empirical notions that past action, or experience, combines with natural law to basically set out our actions. I cannot see how a philosophy that suggests this cause and effect...show more content...
Peter van Inwagen, a proponent of libertarianism, argues in his piece "Freedom of the Will" that freedom and a society dictated. Libertarians often rationalize that one must believe that humans have free will so that we as a society are able to hold people accountable for their actions. Yet, as a hard determinist, I would say that yes we do exist in a cause and effect world in which actions are predetermined; yet, we are the means of those actions. van Inwagen also rejects determinism because he believes in the possibility of one having multiple futures – which determinism does not allow for. Most importantly, he rejects determinism's central idea, the causality relationship, in favor of a world in which humans can choose their own paths. This idea of choice is not sound as actions that one has no control over before birth indirectly influence their decision making, rationalizing, and so forth. For instance, people born into households with lower incomes tend to go to lower performing schools. These lower performing schools impact their ideas about society, their role in society, and in a broader view, the world. The "choices" they make were already decided before they were even born from the socioeconomic conditions and genetic history since the beginning of time that had preceded the birth. Unknowingly, the person makes "choices," which are not really their own, based off of
Determinism Research Paper
Around the world there have been many massacres and crimes conducted by people who have mental disabilities, personality disorders, and behavioral conditioning. In philosophy the argument between free will and determinism is if criminals should be held responsible for committing a crime. I believe that you cannot punish someone and hold them responsible if they have any mental illness or disorder that does not make them think straight and cautiously about their actions, this stand would be considered hard determinism. To begin with, hard determinism titles that, "all our choices are determined and that we do not have moral responsibility for our actions" (Lawhead 120). For someone to be considered as a hard determinist they would have to
Examples Of Determinism
Determinism means that humans do not have any control over their lives or the circumstances around them. Everything is predetermined right from the moment they are born. On the other hand, agency is using their own free will to go against their fate and their limitation of their circumstance to create their own destiny.
In the play, it is predestined at the beginning that their son will kill Laius and grow up to marry his mother. To make certain that the prophecy will not come true, both Laius and Jocasta indirectly committed infanticide, ordering their servant to kill their child. It was determinism that let the parent knew of their fate from god, but it was agency that lead to them taking action in order to prevent their fate from coming...show more content...
Instead of dying, the son now grew up to be the Prince of Corinth. Everything was fine until he met a drunk man who suddenly told him that he was the foster son and both the king and the queen were not his real parents. Although his parent insisted that he was their son, but there were rumours that spread that he was not. As a result, he left his parents to seek the answer from God on who his real parents were. However, instead of answering him, the God told him about the prophecy. To avoid fulfilling it, he did not return to his country and become a wanderer.
The whole paragraph above shows the determinism at work, creating a situation that Oedipus is unable to control. If the drunk man had not started the whole event, casting doubts in his mind about his parentage, he would have live in ignorance of his parentage and continued to stay with his adopted parent.
The outcome could have changed if Oedipus had been more honest with his parent on why he need to know the truth of his parentage. It was not his parentage that worried him but the prophecy. It would have been a relief if he had knew the truth. He can still stay with his adopted parent and still be the King of Corinth far away from his real parents, avoiding the
Essay On Determinism
Ever since the beginning of time one of the biggest debates of time was Free Will or Determinism. With Determinism people are looking from the outside in, and with Free Will people are looking inside out. Is the world based on everyone and everything having Free Will, or is everything that happen determined to happen? I am a determinist, I believe that everything that happens, happens for a reason, caused by events that have happen in the past. I am going to give you three examples of historical events that show Determinism is present in society, and always has been present. Major court cases in the U.S. like Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, and Brown v. Board of Education 2 caused the Civil Rights Movement. WW2 Caused The Cold War. The great depression caused The New Deal, and FDR.
The court cases of Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown v. Board of Education, and Brown v. Board of Education 2 caused the Civil Rights Movement. The plessy v. Ferguson court case resulted in the court ruling that "Separate but equal" was constitutional. This caused a lot of people to be very upset. The next major court case Brown v. Board of Education, several years later resulted in the "Separate but equal" was not constitutional, and that it had no place. Brown...show more content...
Even though The United States and the USSR were allies in WW2, there was much tension between the two countries after the war. The United States knew throughout the entire war that the USSR was a communist country, and The United States was very scared of a communism, and was in fear that the USSR could partake in a communist takeover. The USSR knew that America had an atomic bomb, and they were in great fear that they would use the bomb on their country. America held nuclear secrets from the USSR in particular, and this made the USSR even more scared that the United States would use a nuclear bomb on
Freedom and Determinism Essay
Freedom is a human value that has inspired many poets, politicians, spiritual leaders, and philosophers for centuries. Poets have rhapsodized about freedom for centuries. Politicians present the utopian view that a perfect society would be one where we all live in freedom, and spiritual leaders teach that life is a spiritual journey leading the soul to unite with God, thus achieving ultimate freedom and happiness. In addition, we have the philosophers who perceive freedom as an inseparable part of our nature, and spend their lives questioning the concept of freedom and attempting to understand it (Transformative Dialogue, n.d.).
Freedom, or the concept of free will seems to be an elusive theory, yet many of us believe in it implicitly....show more content...
A determinist believes that even though an individual makes voluntary, conscious decisions, those decisions are influenced by a multitude of determinants. These determinants may include genes, upbringing, culture, current situations, and past experiences, among others.
Modern determinists believe determinism promotes tolerance in how we view ourselves and others. Instead of focusing on our own or others' mistakes, we believe that each individual is doing their best given their particular combination of determinants. Those who believe in free will seek to blame individuals for not making the right decisions or choosing the right thing. Determinists argue that if free will truly existed, all of us would possess health and achieve wealth and happiness. Since none of us have this much control over our lives, we become disillusioned and give up trying, leading to defensive and self–defeating behavior (Gill, 2005). However, the belief in free will or freedom is hard to give up because it is seen as the agent of change. Ancient Greeks based their understanding of freedom by distinguishing between intentional and unintentional action. Socrates' understanding of human action reflected
determinism Essay
Free Will
Imagine if you found yourself in a state of bondage where every action desire and feeling was planned on an inexorable agenda that you could not help but comply with. Although this seems like a dark and fantastical world, if the idea of determinism is fully accepted than it may not be as distant as you might think. The idea of Free Will is one of the most timeless and dubitable philosophical questions and is imposable to disregard. The idea of Free Will has three prevailing schools of thought, consisting of Determinism, (The belief that every action is determined and therefore, not free.), Liberalism (the belief that our actions are not causally determined and therefore, free.)and lastly, Compatibilism (The belief that...show more content...
Could you imagine a world with no moral responsibility, albeit the world would be a much more accepting place, the price would be indifference and there would be nothing left to strive for, or to restrain you from treachery. It would be like sitting contently as a passive train pasengar, just waiting to see where the train's terminal track takes him. The deterministic argument that every action is the result of a prior action is imposable to dismiss, but whether or not you have a choice in what action you make is still up for grabs.
Although it is very difficult to indisputably prove the case for Determinism, it is equally testing to argue free will. As I mentioned before, free will relies highly on the idea of responsibility. In order to deny free will, you must also deny responsibility, which is a very difficult thing for anyone to do. If we are truly ruled by causal law, than how could any event of occurred other wise, so in order to save moral responsibility, we must either disprove or reinterpret these causal laws. Most people consider free will as being able to make choices and find alternatives that have not already been determined. The Incompatibilist or liberalist believes that
Existentialism Vs. Determinism Essay
Free Will
Analyzing our individual free will can be very intriguing and can almost
reach the point of being paradoxical. Ultimately, free will determines the level
of responsibility we claim for our actions. Obviously, if outside forces
determine our choices, we cannot be held responsible for our actions. However,
if our choices are made with total freedom than certainly we must claim
responsibility for our choices and actions.
The readings I chose offered two quite opposite theories on individual
human freedom, determinism vs. existentialism. In comparing...show more content...
It teaches that all human actions are determined by such things as early
childhood experiences thus relinquishing us from total responsibility for our
actions caused by such determining factors. However, if my actions were the
result of my own reasoning exclusive of outside factors than I must take
responsibility for my choices.
In total contrast with determinism, existentialism professes the complete
freedom of the human being. The particular reading I read dealt with atheistic
existentialism, this view of personal freedom rejected a belief in God, feeling
that it would be incompatible with the uncertainty and harsh reality of life
during the time of two wars. This view shared that a person was not ruled by
heredity or environment but was always free at any time to make his own
choices. Due to the denial of God, this theory held that there were no existing
moral laws, thus, individuals were free to determine their own human nature
through choices for which they stand accountable (existentialism, in general,
emphasizes what makes each life a unique personal experience as opposed to
any existing moral laws). "Authentic" living involves free choices that allows
the individual to become his own person. The big difference between
Hard Determinism Essay example
Hard Determinism
There are several viewpoints which consider whether we are free when making decisions and taking courses of action. One of these perspectives is hard determinism. J. Mackie described hard determinism as:
'The view that all actions are explicable in terms of their causes and are therefore inevitable'
(J. Mackie)
This outlines the basic idea that no action or decision is free. This is based upon the notion that for an action to happen there are a series of factors that ensure the occurrence of that action:
'…all our choices, decisions, intentions, other mental events, and our actions are no more than effects of other necessitated events'
(T. Honderich)...show more content...
Other, possibly trivial, aspects such as the weather or having a certain piece of clothing clean would determine the choice made.
The philosopher Van Inwagen elaborated upon this initial idea of past events effecting current decisions:
'My action today is the consequence of a causal circumstance in the remote past before I was born'
(Van Inwagen)
He believed that previous events even prior to birth could effect the decisions made in our life now.
Sigmund Freud first suggested the notion of psychological conditioning that would, again, condition our decisions and actions. He separated the human psyche into three parts; the Id, Ego and Super–Ego. The Id is our child hood desires to seek pleasure and avoid pain and demands immediate gratification, the Super–Ego is the ideals we would like to create in society, whilst the Ego moderates the two due to being governed by the 'reality principle'. It is then that our motives and desires emerge subconsciously from the psyche, usually as a result of suppressed feelings which emerge later in life. Carl Jung furthered Freud's theory stating that the choices that we are conscious of making (the individual consciousness) are affected by the individual, cultural and universal subconscious. The individual subconscious is a personal aspect that we are
Essay Technological Determinism
Technological determinism is a term developed by Marshal McLuhan, a theorist in the study of new media. By technological determinism, McLuhan refers to technology having the power to change societies and influence our cultures. In this essay I will argue that technology does have the power to change society and influence a civilization, using ideas put forward by Marshal McLuhan. I will also discuss the debate around technological determinism recognizing the claims made by Raymond Williams that society shapes technology as we look back at its emergence and their subsequent control.
Both theorists have an interest in new media but it is the argument between weather technologies can shape society or is society shaping technology (LM...show more content...
From experience, I for one believe that technology has had a major impact on my culture , In Fiji if a man wished to be with a woman by our culture he has to go and let the woman's family know about his intentions of being with the woman and ask them for permission before taking her out on a date. Nowadays this important part of our culture is history, a man just has to call the woman on her cell phone and ask her out on a date without her parents knowing. Now that I look at the changes that have happened in my culture, I think that it is a shame to watch our culture and traditions being influenced by technology. McLuhan with his writing's makes us think about the power of technology and its abilities to rearrange society.
Raymond Williams on the other hand claims that technology does not shape society as he studies the emergence of technology and comes to the conclusion that is society that has control over technology and determines its uses and ability. Williams argues that technology should not be looked at as a totally different sphere that was separate form human life. Williams argued that technology is a social need in which it was invented. William's argues against McLuhan's claims that the forms of technologies are predetermined and says that technology