I Feel Free

Free will’s existence is nearly impossible to determine but crucial to the morality of judgments. Without free will, it doesn’t stand to reason that a person can be held morally responsible for doing wrong because they had no ability to not do the wrong. Choice is the necessary factor in determining culpability. In the same way that hot soup cannot be held liable for burning someone, a person cannot be held liable for perpetrating a crime if they had no free will. The implications of the free…

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…

Are we free? On one hand most of us have the clear mindset that we are, we feel and act free, we feel like we make all sorts of decisions, good or bad that lead to both beliefs (that we are and that we’re not free) but it has yet to be proven that somebody can just decide to change his or her beliefs in any which way. But, consider knocking someone out, or, for another example, I donate wheat to a third world country on a whim, just because I feel like it. This view that humans are more than…

you think of free? Do you think to be free is only means to get out of one’s control and keep yourself free or is to use your hands to be respect and enhance the freedom of others? Before I finish reading the book “Looking for Alibrandi”, I may believe that get out of one’s control is the meaning of to be free. However, when I finish reading the book, I started wondering, living in a way of respects and enhances the freedom of others is the truly meaning of “to be free”. Therefore, I agree with…

necessity in the realm of human actions can be either moral or physical. Liberty is connected with free will, and necessity is associated with determinism. Kames believes that if people thought that all of their actions were determined, it would affect their free will (morality). Naturally, we believe that we have the free will to make choices. Kames feels as if God instilled a natural belief that free will was needed for making moral choices. He reconciles that both moral and physical…

Right now you have two choices; to read this essay or to not read this essay. If you are still reading this essay you might of thought that your choice was free will. It wasn’t. Everything is life is is an effect that came from a cause. If you can’t see it that way picture this, imagine your life is a flow chart, starting at birth ending at death. The decision you make spaces ahead establishes the spaces to come. Some of those might not of even by made by you yet, they are determining your life…

The Problem with the Problem of Evil I am arguing that the Logical Problem of Evil (LPE) is not a successful argument to reject the existence of god. This is because the LPE has an inaccurate explanation for the definition of good. I will show that with the correct definition of “good,” an all good and all powerful god can logically exist simultaneously with evil. I will further show that, even if we accept this inaccurate definition of good, this argument will still not constitute the immediate…

Can you escape fate? Are we free or are we influenced by outside factors? Does our past determine our future? Philosophers have presented two opposing views to answer the aforementioned questions; do we follow free will or determinism? Free will is the concept that we are free to make our own decision. Determinists argue that actions, just like our world, are based on cause and effect. The following essay will explore the concept of free will, determinism and compatibilism; a concept that some…

In different philosophies and literary works, the ideas of fate and free will have always contradicted each other, creating tension. The difference between the two concepts is evident; free will advocates choice and the ability to shape your own future, while fate governs your actions for the rest of your life, similar to the Calvinist belief of predestination in regards to salvation. Having such distinct natures, how is it possible for these two ideas to coexist and sometimes merge into one…

Free Will and its Relation to Grace: Erasmus versus Luther In our reading on Discourse of Free Will, we develop a wholesome idea of the opinions both Erasmus and Luther had on the topic of free will and the how it correlates with God’s grace. Once we look beyond the back and forth debate of this text, we will begin to look at their theological opinions on free will separately to find a better understanding and formulate our own opinions on this commonly debated topic. As we look at the…