Freedom vs Causality In the argument of freedom vs. causality, causality follows the laws of nature, which implies that nothing happens without cause, in other words meaning, life as we know it is just one big cycle of cause and effect. Freedom, on the other hand, allows for spontaneity, meaning not every effect has a prior cause, thus allowing for new events to occur. So, the argument, or rather question, is: which one of these is true…freedom, or causality? With freedom comes free will, a mind, and a soul. With causality, comes a body (made up of matter) reacting to the matter (e.g. trees, buildings, other bodies, etc.) surrounding it, actions that are not our own, and a fate that is predetermined. With freedom, we belong to ourselves, and
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For the sake of this paper, though, I will be agreeing with Kant that there is such a thing as freedom, and that causality is false (219). To make my case I will be using the evolution vs. creation debate to argue that causality in itself is a contradiction.
The argument against causality is that if everything is an effect of some one cause, then what is the prior cause of the immediate cause? A great example of this question would be the evolution vs. creation debate. If we are to agree that everything has a cause and an effect, and that X created Y, and W X, then we must ask what created A? What is the prior cause of A? So when we look at the two sides of our evolution vs. creation debate, on the side of evolution, it is presumed that there was a giant cluster of mass that exploded and created the entire universe that we know today, but the problem with this theory in accordance with causality, is that if the mass was the cause of the universe, what was the cause of the mass? And on the side of creation, it is presumed that a higher power (e.g. God) created the universe, but the problem with this theory is that it raises the question: what created that higher power? Through causality, neither side of the debate is valid, because with both sides …show more content…
creation debate would then be valid on both sides because the mass can in itself be its own cause, and God would not have needed to be created from anything. Freedom would allow for new causes and effects to occur, rather than having occurred millions of years ago. The freedom of will would then exist for me to spontaneously jump off of a cliff without it being predetermined before I was even born. Freedom would also mean that I have a soul and a mind and that who I am is not just a chain reaction of events. Freedom separates the conscious beings from the non-conscious beings, rather than having them in the same genera. Freedom also has a definite first cause, which causality does
For the sake of this paper, though, I will be agreeing with Kant that there is such a thing as freedom, and that causality is false (219). To make my case I will be using the evolution vs. creation debate to argue that causality in itself is a contradiction.
The argument against causality is that if everything is an effect of some one cause, then what is the prior cause of the immediate cause? A great example of this question would be the evolution vs. creation debate. If we are to agree that everything has a cause and an effect, and that X created Y, and W X, then we must ask what created A? What is the prior cause of A? So when we look at the two sides of our evolution vs. creation debate, on the side of evolution, it is presumed that there was a giant cluster of mass that exploded and created the entire universe that we know today, but the problem with this theory in accordance with causality, is that if the mass was the cause of the universe, what was the cause of the mass? And on the side of creation, it is presumed that a higher power (e.g. God) created the universe, but the problem with this theory is that it raises the question: what created that higher power? Through causality, neither side of the debate is valid, because with both sides …show more content…
creation debate would then be valid on both sides because the mass can in itself be its own cause, and God would not have needed to be created from anything. Freedom would allow for new causes and effects to occur, rather than having occurred millions of years ago. The freedom of will would then exist for me to spontaneously jump off of a cliff without it being predetermined before I was even born. Freedom would also mean that I have a soul and a mind and that who I am is not just a chain reaction of events. Freedom separates the conscious beings from the non-conscious beings, rather than having them in the same genera. Freedom also has a definite first cause, which causality does