Implications Of Determinism And Free Will
What are the implications of determinism for our understanding of free will? Argue your position.
There are several implications of determinism that illustrate our understanding of free will. It is a general understanding that we as humans should be free to make our own choices our lives; yet we also understand that events, including human behaviour, may have a prior cause, perhaps due to natural or some other circumstance. This paper aims to identify and present these implications of determinism on free will.
Naturally, we are raised in a society where ‘agency’ or the ability to act freely is a given birth right (in most countries anyway), subsequently followed by the self being regulated over time to develop socially acceptable and …show more content…
Logical determinism is important to consider for our understanding of free will, as it sets a true/false premise to an outcome occurring (Taylor, 1963). For example, X will happen tomorrow or not, but if Y happens, the premise is still fulfilled by X not occurring. (Aristotle, 350). Arguably, this can restrict free will. When the outcome is fixed and may occur on probability, free will cannot permit us to change this. Although what is true, will always be true and remain true in the principle of this form of determinism, regardless of whether we know the outcome, can exist a freedom of choice, which potentially leads to the final …show more content…
Some of the examples discussed can be considered as hard determinist approaches if we rule out this possibility. More importantly though, we should look at the position of a ‘soft determinist’, where free will can exist in a determinist environment, but where the concept of ‘free will’ is not what we think it may be. We as humans have individual experiences for each and every thing in our lives, including knowing the feeling of how to evaluate, deliberate, and make a decision. We are able to feel that this is our own choice, regardless of what context our personal character or ‘self’ we have constructed since birth, where we also have the ability to change our mind about our decisions. These are fundamental feelings possessed by all human beings regarding their own free will. What potentially causes a division is the different methods in which people portray this, for example- free will is incompatible with determinism, humans have free will; determinism is false (Libertarianism). Or perhaps a dualist approach where whatever in the human mind is exercising free will, may or may not change the course of the
There are several implications of determinism that illustrate our understanding of free will. It is a general understanding that we as humans should be free to make our own choices our lives; yet we also understand that events, including human behaviour, may have a prior cause, perhaps due to natural or some other circumstance. This paper aims to identify and present these implications of determinism on free will.
Naturally, we are raised in a society where ‘agency’ or the ability to act freely is a given birth right (in most countries anyway), subsequently followed by the self being regulated over time to develop socially acceptable and …show more content…
Logical determinism is important to consider for our understanding of free will, as it sets a true/false premise to an outcome occurring (Taylor, 1963). For example, X will happen tomorrow or not, but if Y happens, the premise is still fulfilled by X not occurring. (Aristotle, 350). Arguably, this can restrict free will. When the outcome is fixed and may occur on probability, free will cannot permit us to change this. Although what is true, will always be true and remain true in the principle of this form of determinism, regardless of whether we know the outcome, can exist a freedom of choice, which potentially leads to the final …show more content…
Some of the examples discussed can be considered as hard determinist approaches if we rule out this possibility. More importantly though, we should look at the position of a ‘soft determinist’, where free will can exist in a determinist environment, but where the concept of ‘free will’ is not what we think it may be. We as humans have individual experiences for each and every thing in our lives, including knowing the feeling of how to evaluate, deliberate, and make a decision. We are able to feel that this is our own choice, regardless of what context our personal character or ‘self’ we have constructed since birth, where we also have the ability to change our mind about our decisions. These are fundamental feelings possessed by all human beings regarding their own free will. What potentially causes a division is the different methods in which people portray this, for example- free will is incompatible with determinism, humans have free will; determinism is false (Libertarianism). Or perhaps a dualist approach where whatever in the human mind is exercising free will, may or may not change the course of the