Determinism

Marisa Paris Humanities 220 Professor Cope 11/17/14 One of the benefits of comparing multiple different pieces of work is the ability it gives us to form our own opinions. Although the pieces of work may be from varying time periods, or unchanged time periods, each of them still include certain aspects that are virtually the same. For example, The Gospel of Luke, Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and Augustine’s Confessions, all present alike views on the idea of free will. A loose definition of…

Literature, often has a moral message embedded in it, the theme plays a crucial role to serve as a reflection of humanity’s actions. The concept of free will vs. fate, argues whether an individual has the choice to determine their future in a society that has already cast one’s fate. In theory, fate constrained free will by assigning each individual a role at birth, thus enforcing a stereotype to shape the individual life. On the contrary, free will states that an individual has the right to…

The concept of fate, the idea that there is a higher power that controls every aspect of one’s life, has plagued mankind since the dawn of philosophy. According to an article called “When it comes to fate, even non-believers believe”, "Among God-believers, 84.8 percent reported some degree of belief in fate, 13.0 percent reported they were neutral and 2.2 percent denied belief in fate." Almost everyone believes in fate at some point in their life; although, the event in their life where fate…

Free will is a right that every person is born with and has till the day they die. Starting as a blank slate with no influences. As people age, mature, and experience new things the debate of free will comes up. Free will is the ability to act without restraint or fate, to act on one’s own discretion. Many people believe humans have lost free will, or simply do not have it anymore. As a person, the right to free will never fades, sometimes clouded by others opinions or judgments, but the choice…

Within this essay, I will argue that Galen Strawson’s basic argument, presented in Your Move: The Maze of Free Will, is correct about the impossibility of ultimate moral responsibility. I will do this by first explaining the argument, then raising an objection that concerns self-creation, and finally refuting the objection. Strawson’s basic argument can be boiled down to the simple notion that one cannot be ultimately morally responsible. He claims that anything you do in any circumstance is…

Discussing Kane and Self Forming Actions This essay looks to discuss Kane’s self-forming actions, or SFAs, and looks to see if they are successful in defending a libertarian conception of free will. First essay will explain what SFAs are. Next, the essay challenges the validity of SFAs on the grounds that Kane`s account of freedom lacks a proper external story. It finds this to be true, and concludes that SFAs cannot then save libertarianism as they are not valid. According to Kane most…

One important branch of deterministic philosophy is Stoicism. The Stoics were pantheists, meaning they believe all aspects of nature and the universe are God. From this line of thinking, they also believe everything interacts together in a way that sets events into motion from which it follows that the Stoics believe everything is determined. Stoic philosophy can be very confusing to studiers because it holds a heavy contradiction. As previously stated, they believe that everything is determined…

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…

In his book, Free Will, author Sam Harris argues that the premises of free will, [1] “that each of us could have behaved differently than we did in the past” and [2] “that we are the conscious source of most of our thoughts, [intensions] and actions in the present” are false. Harris begins his argument by explaining that free will is an illusion because it is not our own making. Harris explains that our thoughts and intentions are the product of our unconscious mind. The point of origin of…

In four short chapters, Cavanaugh first exposes the misleading claims of the free market, arguing freedom must be ordered towards good ends. Absent otherworld’s telos, only the unreasonable power of one will against another remains. Second, he describes consumerism as a spiritual frame of mind that perpetuates a foolish desire for desire itself. Its logic is not a greedy grasping for possessions, but an empty detachment from, producers, production and the products we consume. Third, despite…