Free group

Human beings have always pondered the idea of free will. Both “Barn Burning” and “I Am a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy”, written respectively by William Faulkner and Louise Erdrich, address this issue. “Barn Burning” outlines the way in which people make the conscious decision to either hold onto their obsessions or break free from the repetitive cycle they’re in. “I Am a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy” looks into the way an individual views their own choices, specifically how their…

Throughout my adolescence, I was raised, taught, and encouraged to believe that I have free will and I am held responsible for my actions. On the other hand, not many people were raised, taught or encouraged to believe the way I was. Most people believe they are not held responsible for their actions. There are external factors in which we have no control of and our ability to do things differently is limited. This means that if an external factor is causally determined, then your ability to do…

Fate can be defined as something that is destined to happen and is beyond our control. Free will, on the other hand, is being able to act freely without being constrained by a predetermined fate. In Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus Rex, the concepts of fate and free will are very prominent throughout the play. In ancient Greece, fate was considered to be a reality outside of an individual that determined his or her life and represented an unstoppable force. The ancient Greeks believed in fatalism,…

around us as free will is a state of mind. Free will is the idea that we have a choice in how we act and it assumes that we are unrestricted in choosing our actions, therefore we stand self-determined. We have the power to act without constraint of necessity or fate of discretion and a person remains in control of their own life. The idea of free will gives humans reason to exist. As if free will does not exist, then we live only as much as a river or a cloud does. Still the principle of free…

Continuing with the case of Dennett vs NASA, I am being called upon to make recommendations to the court on various philosophical issues related to the aftermath of the short story “Where Am I?”, by Daniel Dennett. The latest issue pertains to whether or not the government is guilt for their role in the transformation of Dennett 's body being controlled by two people. While they are not fully responsible for what happened, the government certainly has some blame for this situation and a moral…

From Tralfamadorian philosophy, Billy Pilgrim reaches the conclusion that free will does not exist. This deterministic attitude comes from Billy’s naiveté on the compatibility between our freedom to choose and pre-determined outcomes. For this paper, determinism will be simply defined as stating that given the past and the laws of nature there is only one possible future. In other words, the only future reality that will happen is the only reality that can happen, therefore, the state of the…

Voice 1: ...and therein our problem lies, free will exists. It is your fault that you chose to talk to me about this. Voice 2: No, no, no. All of our actions were determined beforehand because of the natural order of things. This conversation exists because of previous causes, and the causes had causes, and so on. Free will does not exit. Voice 1: I cannot bring myself to believe in such a thing. Obviously, there are multiple choices to make at any given moment and all the decision making…

In the “Problems of Philosophy”, Chapter 9: “The Debate Over Free Will”, James Rachels and Stuart Rachels, investigate over freewill. Throughout the chapter the authors discuss what free will means and the ways to evaluate if we are free. The chapter moves towards the Free Will Argument using the Determinist Argument, the Libertarian Response, the Compatibilist Response and additionally covering the ethics involved with the chapter of free will. The chapter begins with the determinist argument…

If there is providence, why do terrible things happen to good men? The piece of writing “Of Providence” by Seneca, tries to answer this question from a divine viewpoint. Seneca argues that those close to God do have to pass hurdles, but do not consider themselves to be suffering. This essay will agree with Seneca’s claims. In the context of this writing, terrible things or “evils” refer to pain, defeat, tribulations and loss. Seneca claims that good men are those who are loved by God. Seneca…

Opposing to determinism comes the idea of indeterminism, which is the complete opposite. Indeterminism is the idea that rejects both hard and regular determinism saying that not every event has its sufficient natural causes. This idea leaves room for free will that some actions are due to choices that living beings make. This would mean that people re responsible for their actions and are left to make their own thoughts and decisions. Physicist, Werner Heisenberg, created the Heisenberg…