Human behaviors, actions, desires and memories are all subjects that are discussed in everyday philosophy. Philosophy is defined as the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. Philosophy has a lot to do with the future. When it comes to philosophy the future is already set and no one knows what will happen until the time comes and that is called hard determinism. Hard determinism is a theory that human behavior and actions are determined by external factors, and therefore humans do not have genuine free will or ethical accountability. Hard determinism contains two powerful objections, but is capable of being on it’s own.
Hard determinism argues that every event results from prior causes and because human thoughts …show more content…
John Locke, English philosopher and physician, said once, “Freedom of choice is an illusion” ( A level Revision). Locke draws an analogy that led to his conclusion about the illusionary freedom. Locke’s analogy talks about a man who woke up in a room, but the man does not know that the room is locked from the outside. The man chose to stay in the room believing that he was free to leave at any time. In fact, the man had no option, so his ignorance gave him the illusion of freedom. As humans are capable of rational thoughts and self-examination, human beings imagine themselves to have free will and be able to choose what they want which makes them distinct from objects or animals. If choices are determined by humans’ desires, then the freedom of choice depends on whether these desires are fundamentally “free”. When humans follow the origin of their desires, they will inevitably end up at a source of actions which is external to their self-consciousness. For example, Sam wants to sleep because he is drowsy, and the reason why he is sleepy is because he lacks some sleep. His brain received a signal that triggered his desires to sleep. Sam was not free when he chose to sleep because his choice resulted from biochemical events that were outside of his control. Even with choosing the simplest decisions as which to sleep, people are not free. Hard determinismists state that each action a person performs is a consequence of the causal laws of the universe and whatever someone does is actually what he or she had to do. According to the Dutch philosopher, Benedict Spinoza says, “in the mind there is no absolute or free will, but the mind is determined to will this or that by a cause, which has been determined by another cause and this by another cause and so on until infinity” (Free
Hard determinism argues that every event results from prior causes and because human thoughts …show more content…
John Locke, English philosopher and physician, said once, “Freedom of choice is an illusion” ( A level Revision). Locke draws an analogy that led to his conclusion about the illusionary freedom. Locke’s analogy talks about a man who woke up in a room, but the man does not know that the room is locked from the outside. The man chose to stay in the room believing that he was free to leave at any time. In fact, the man had no option, so his ignorance gave him the illusion of freedom. As humans are capable of rational thoughts and self-examination, human beings imagine themselves to have free will and be able to choose what they want which makes them distinct from objects or animals. If choices are determined by humans’ desires, then the freedom of choice depends on whether these desires are fundamentally “free”. When humans follow the origin of their desires, they will inevitably end up at a source of actions which is external to their self-consciousness. For example, Sam wants to sleep because he is drowsy, and the reason why he is sleepy is because he lacks some sleep. His brain received a signal that triggered his desires to sleep. Sam was not free when he chose to sleep because his choice resulted from biochemical events that were outside of his control. Even with choosing the simplest decisions as which to sleep, people are not free. Hard determinismists state that each action a person performs is a consequence of the causal laws of the universe and whatever someone does is actually what he or she had to do. According to the Dutch philosopher, Benedict Spinoza says, “in the mind there is no absolute or free will, but the mind is determined to will this or that by a cause, which has been determined by another cause and this by another cause and so on until infinity” (Free