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Determinism Vs Free Will Essay

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From a young age, a person learns that what they do causes a reaction. For example, an infant cries to tell a parent that it is in need of food, attention, or a diaper change. Later on a toddler learns to get a prize he must ask for it. A school age child must be good to be rewarded and being bad can end with a time out or spanking depending on the parenting styles. As young teenagers, the individual should really understand cause and effect, such as going to a party and sneaking out will have consequences when my mom hears about it. Then the person wages with choice is better. Yet, what if our choices are already predetermined, and the individual was already determined to go the party and there was no real choice. In a philosophical controversy there is an argument between free will and determinism. By believing that all events are caused by prior events that are lead by a higher being such as God, then a person has a deterministic view. Believing these choices are freely chosen exhibits free will. I along …show more content…

The friends and surroundings of a person have an affect on his or her personality and thoughts, yet determinism isn’t those characteristic in place. Most people’s mothers have proclaimed hanging out with a bad person will make you look bad. This can be true, the things that lead up to person being seen as bad can rub off onto the child and then it is okay to commit or chose the bad at hand. Let’s use Aristotle’s example from Chisholm’s work stating, “Thus, a staff moves a stone, and is moved by a hand, which is moved by the man” (600). It appears causation has a role in the way the stone is moved similar to the way a person makes choices. The choices that a person thinks she makes could be interpreted as proof of free when it is actually a form of causation. No matter how much one can simplify it was caused by the agent, which is making decisions considering previous examples and turnouts similar to cause and

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