Essay on Determinism and Free will

In the Philosophy, Determinism has many different categories. Actually according to the textbook, the Determinism is the view that every event, including human actions, are brought about by previous events in accordance with the natural laws that govern the world. Human freedom is an illusion. Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza does not deny that people’s wishes and desires will lead to the soul, and he said, "but neglected one important

Over the course of time, in the dominion of philosophy, there has been a constant debate involving two major concepts: free will and determinism. Are our paths in life pre-determined? Do we have the ability to make decisions by using our freedom of will? While heavily subjective questions that have been answered many different authors, philosophers, etc., two authors in particular have answered these questions very similarly. David Hume, a Scottish philosopher from the 18th century, argues in his essay “Of Liberty and Necessity” that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that they can both be accepted at the same time without being logically incorrect. Alike Hume, 20th century author Harry G. Frankfurt concludes in his essay “Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility” that the two major concepts are compatible. These two authors are among the most famous of Compatibilists (hence the fact that they believe free will and determinism are compatible ideas) in philosophical history. The question that then arises in the realm of compatibilism particularly, is one dealing with moral responsibility: If our paths in life are not totally pre-determined, and we have the ability to make decisions willingly (using free will), then how do we deem an individual morally responsible for a given decision? Frankfurt reaches the conclusion that we are held morally responsible regardless of

A choice issues from, and can be sufficiently explained by, an agent’s character and motives, then to be ultimately responsible for the choice, the agent must be at least in part responsible by virtue of choices or actions voluntarily performed in the past for having the character and motives he now has (295).

Arguments pro et contra the possibility of free will inevitably attempt to answer the question on whether or not moral responsibility is possible. In “Impossibility of Moral Responsibility” philosopher Galen Strawson attempts to show proof that, not only is moral responsibility impossible, but it necessarily follows, whether or not determinism turns out to be true or false. It is my contention that Strawson's argument is correct, and it is impossible for us to be responsible for our actions. As a result, it is equally impossible to be morally responsible for those same actions. The consequence is simple; free will is an illusion. We hang tight to

The core of free will is that the individual can respond in more than one situation to a given scenario. In the holding of a determinist, this holding is extremely flawed. Actions, including unconscious actions, are being done to bring an individual to the point where the person is left no option but to perform the action that was inevitably laid down

Throughout society, one would be hard pressed to find an individual that did not believe in the concept of freedom. Free will has become a value so ingrained in civilization that most trust in it implicitly without question and the idea of being free is often romanticized in literature, politics, religion, and media…However, there is a juxtaposing viewpoint that is also widely recognized. Determinism is generally accepted as the opposite of free will in that individuals are not free agents in their own life and decisions and behavior is already planned out for them. Two paths that generally cannot mutually exist in the world; which one is right? Upon examining the research, the vote seems to fall in favor of free will.

When we look at determinism we see something like a chain of events. Each event leads us to and causes the next in the chain. From here it certainly looks like our own choices don’t matter, like free will isn’t real, but if we look closer and consider some other things we might get a clearer picture of what is going on and might find free will in this chain somewhere.

On the other hand, also defined by Google, Determinism is “the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.” Fundamentally, you do not have a choice in your actions as it was predetermined from your start.

Perhaps a more substantial argument would simply state that there is no logical basis on which to deny free will. Even if free will did not exist and we were all helplessly condemned to our particular “fate”, it seems rather unproductive or even pessimistic to think about it this way. One could just sit around all day and, in a sense, let “fate” happen. Everything and anything including life itself would lose meaning. There’d be no

Some claim that forces not of their own making largely determine people’s behavior. Behaviorists strongly support this statement with a word known as determinism. Simply put, determinism is “the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will” (determinism, 2011). Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that people have no free will and cannot be held accountable for their behavior. Removing choice and self-respect determinism belittles human behavior. By crafting an extensive spectrum of laws of behavior, deterministic psychology underestimates the individuality of human beings and their liberty to choose their own destiny.

Freedom is a very powerful word and it can mean so many different things for different people. Some people would say that free will is the most important thing we have, but what does free will really mean and how do we know that we are doing something because of our free will? “Freedom lies in expressing your own determinism, not somebody else´s. It is not the determinism that makes a difference, but instead the ownership. If freedom is what we prefer, it is preferable to be determined by forces that originate in ourselves and not in others.” This is a passage from Free Will written by Matt Ridley. According to this passage, determinism has a big impact on how our free will works. We cannot control our determinism since that is something nature

The determinists believe that people are molded by outside forces such as human nature, their environment, psychological forces, and social dynamics (Chaffee, 2013, p. 173). Human nature refers to the inborn nature that every person is genetically hardwired with. In other words we can’t have free choice because we cannot alter our fundamental character (Chaffee, 2013, p.173)

To my knowledge freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. Determinism states that every event has a set of causes that determine their effects. However the things people do can be labeled cause with a equal effect as well. Everyone has a set of choices that leads us to act. However these choices may depend on a different set of circumstances. Deciding how we should act and if thus action is by our free will. I like Aristotle believe that these actions be they voluntary or involuntary are a reflection of our morals based on our feelings and actions.

At this point you may be asking yourself, are we free or not? I believe yes. Although, the hard determinist view is correct to a degree about being able to predict human acts it still does not take away the ability to choose, which promotes freedom.

In this line of thought, people lose their free will in order to live in this perfect world. God has a hand in everything that occurs in the world and the “cause and effect” that we see is not determined by the laws in nature—they are directly