Since only intended actions can be measured as virtuous, it is needed to inspect what it means for an action to be voluntary. An involuntary act is when something is done using force or through ignorance it also involves pain and regret. (pg.31 s13) An action done with fear or for the sake of some decent action is more voluntary than involuntary, although they are mixed. (pg. 30 s6) For an act to be involuntary, there must be some outward belief causing the action and the person must not…
God is not responsible for it. Descartes explains why human being make mistakes as he says “I note that these errors depend on the simultaneous concurrence of two causes: the faculty of knowing that is for me and the faculty of choosing, that is, the free choice of the will, in other words, simultaneous on the intellect and will.”(6) He clarifies the intellect as the faculty of knowing which is limited in the way of thinking and understanding, and the will as the faculty of choosing which is…
”[uncountable] power that is believed to control everything that happens and that cannot be stopped or changed.” When referring to free will, one might define it was the acting without the constraint of fate. It is the ability to act at one’s own discretion. The ancient Greeks acknowledged the role of Fate as a reality outside oneself that shaped and determined life. The Theme “Fate vs. Free Will” is applicable to Sophocles’s three Theban plays: Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Oedipus at Colonus. In…
The idea of fate and free will is a complicated concept, and the many aspects of how free an individual is, remains unclear. In The Sisters Brother Eli and Charlie Sisters grew up in the same violent environment, but are comparably different. The main difference between them is, which unlike Charlie, Eli utilizes his free will constantly, he has a sense of morality, and he also has the determination to change his fate. To be able to deviate from the customs of ones life, they must have strong…
of written history we have had a question that has been debated by many scholars and laymen as well. Is it fate that controls our destiny or the actions we decide to do? I myself am on the side of free will. The play Romeo and Juliet demonstrates this quite clearly. A real life example of why we have free will are that we have a well developed brain. This might seem none important, but it is what lets us have cognitive thoughts. We can predict what will happen if we make a certain choice and…
One of the main themes demonstrated in “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” was fate versus free will. In the play, most of the characters end up succumbing to fate, however Shakespeare still conveys how their fate could have been avoided. Fate was demonstrated through omens and prophecies, while free will was shown through the character’s ability to chose their own future. For instance, Caesar had been warned about his death by three different people. Most notably, Calpurnia predicted Caesar’s and…
through life, ending at some unknown destination. But there are others that contend that destiny is what they make of it. The Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) were a group of people from New Orleans who chose to fight for the right for black citizens to choose their own destiny. They believed that could affect change, thereby making the world around them better for themselves and others. The Comité des Citoyens were everyday normal people. There was nothing spectacular to make them…
Fate works in mysterious ways. Whether we succumb to our supposed fate or have the power of free will is unknown, yet such a question has been pondered throughout history. If “fate” truly exists, then who determines it, how is it determined, and why are some fates more detrimental than others? These questions remain unanswered but were expounded by Sophocles over 2,500 years ago. If one was doomed by fate there was no escaping it; fate would, inevitably, lead to their tragic demise. Oedipus the…
actions determined by the past, or are those choices freely made? Free will has been a debated subject for a very longtime. Many philosophers have tried tackling this issue with no success to finding the existential answer. Free will is defined as the ability to make your own decisions throughout life. The opposing belief is that everything is determined and everything that occurs has a cause behind it, we call this determinism. Free-will and determinism are very different philosophies, despite…
I have gained knowledge pertaining the connections and differences between the concepts of free will, determinism, indeterminism, compatibilism, and fatalism as well. Now, I can distinguish between them clearly and I have a good background regarding these concepts. The first thing I have learned is about the contemporary philosophical language in utilizing the concept of compatibilism as big category instead of soft determinism or hard determinism. The concept of compatibilism is crucial to…