Free-to-play

I have completely modified my beliefs in regards to how free I actually am. Growing up I was always taught how we all have free choices and how we must choose wisely. (I still agree with the choosing wisely part). But more importantly I now see how many of the choices that I made were not really free at all. You see, when one throws internal and external constraints into the equation it was clear that something I was not conscious…

Alexis Barbieri PHIL 006 Fate vs. Free Will Many times we are asked the question is human life fated or is it free, or maybe it is something in between? There can be very good arguments made for both of these things. Those people who believe in fate believe that everything that happens in our lives and everything that is going to happen is predetermined by a higher power; whether you’re a religious person and you believe that higher power is god, or you just believe it could be a natural or…

We like to think that we have free will that we have a choice in how to live our lives that we can achieve anything we want in life as long as we choose to work hard and stay motivated. We hear about those great success stories about people making it to the top thanks to their efforts. But it is not always that way. For most people the story is different, even though they choose to work hard and sacrifice in many ways, they still cannot achieve their goals and dreams. Sometimes it is not up to…

inevitable fate waiting for you in the end. In the play of Oedipus that was his inevitable fate and if he chooses that fate or not could be interpreted in many different ways, some say that he secretly wanted to see his fate to come true because of all his choses that lead up to him making his fate come true. Oedipus was unfortunately pre determined by his fate but he did have the free-will in changing his destiny. There are many ways that this play could token a different turn of events if he…

In my argument, I am going to support Strawson’s claims and argue against Libertarians that it is not possible to be truly morally responsible for one’s actions even with this idea of indeterminacy. Libertarians specifically believe that our free will allows us to have true moral responsibility. In order to fully understand Strawson’s views and the views of those that counter him, we must revisit what his basic argument is. As human beings, we make specific choices and carry out actions the way…

However, in harder times, like a failed audition or a breakup, it is comforting to think that maybe it was fate all along. The play Oedipus Rex and the Broadway musical If/Then both show that fate is ultimately unalterable and how knowledge changes the way we use our free will in our lives leading up to that fate. Fate is the way life ends up, regardless of the way we use free will in all of the choices we make in between. In Oedipus Rex, both Oedipus and Laius seemingly have choices to avoid…

ourselves but at the same time be aware of extraneous forces and the possible randomness of the universe that makes responsibility somewhat impossible. The first response is known as hard determinism, or as Paul Holbach refers to it “the illusion of free will”. Hard determinism is the idea that everything in life occurs because of universal causation. Hard determinism can be compared to a Rube Goldberg machine. A Rube Goldberg machine is an engineered series of events that completes a simple…

Fate is an interesting concept with many definitions. many people believe that their whole life is predetermined by fate and there is nothing they can do about it. In Shakespeare's play Macbeth Macbeth commits many heinous crimes after he was given information from the witches. Although some may say that in Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Macbeth is not to blame for his cruel actions this is false, Macbeth was given information on the beach, he saw a floating dagger, and went to see the witches,…

existence of God and the problem of Evil breaks down to free will, therefore I believe that although God is all-knowing and all-loving, allowing humanity to process free will created a gate for Evil to rise in the form of decision making. God allowed humanity to exercise free will. This may, in a certain perspective portray God as an evil entity, but he does not command humanity to commit crimes, rape, murder, lie, cheat, or steal. A person’s own free will is the decision maker hence forth…

Although we are not responsible for our existence, it lies independent to whether we are responsible of our actions. If we have free will, then we are morally responsible for our actions because we decided make those decisions that lead to those actions. In this case, what I mean by the term “free will” is the ability for the person to act and chose freely with no limitations giving the person a power of choice. Therefore, if we have the power to act and chose…