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Determinism Vs Libertarianism

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It is not easy to have one of your moral beliefs challenged. Free will is something a lot of people believe in and it is why humans are suggested to have moral responsibility. What would it be like to find out that we as humans do not have free will and that all of our actions are determined based on our past experiences? Deciding whether humans have free will or not is an immense task. There are many arguments to suggest that we have free will and there are others to suggest that we do not and that our acts are completely determined. This is the battle of the libertarians against the determinists.
Before contemplating the idea of free will, there was no doubt in my mind that we as human had choices in every situation and we got to choose …show more content…

Hard determinism is factual, it can be applied to all of our acts, and there is no valuable evidence to destroy this view. Moral responsibility and punishment are the two arguments that philosophers use against determinism. Hard determinists believe that moral responsibility does not exist because we do not have the choice to make our decisions. This also makes it difficult to punish people because there is no way to stop someone from doing an act in the eyes of the determinist. Moral responsibility and punishment are arguing the same idea, which is easily rebuked by the determinists. Many determinists feel that punishment is not justifiable because all acts are determined and these false acts they will be committed anyway. Some determinists, like Hospers, have a different view on punishment. Hospers believes in hard determinism, yet he still believes there is a reason for punishment. He believes that even though the false acts were completely determined, “they (the ones committing the act) must be removed from society for our own protection” (Hospers, 352). The view of the determinist is simple; our actions are determined by our previous causes, but we must still punish those who commit false actions in order to protect society. While it may not be justifiable to punish those who’s actions were determined, it is a way to change their behavior and keep the rest of society safe. Hard determinism simply states that all of our acts are completely necessitated by previous causes and there is no way we can use a free act to choose another path because free will does not

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“Determinism is the philosophical idea that every event or state of affairs, including every human decision and action, is the inevitable and necessary consequence of antecedent states of affairs”(Information Philosopher, 2015). It refers to the claim that, at any moment or place in time, there is only one possible future for the whole universe. However, the concept of determinism often comes into question when looking into whether human beings possess free will. Free Will can be defined as “the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion” (Defence of Reason, 2014). The very definition of the terms determinism and free will appear to be conflicting however, many philosophical thinkers

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In this well-thought, extensive piece by Matt Ridley, Free Will starts off humorously with the demonstration of free will and takes us through the factors that influence it. “Society, culture and nurture.” Ridley says, are the factors and elaborates to the full extent of life as to do we have free will or not. Defending his claim that free will can be obtained against the host of critics and their sources, he analyzes and contradicts through his extensive knowledge, strong examples, and his own host of supporting credible people to shield his claim; his rhetorical strategies strongly support and defend his claim. To support the very first claim that he steps on to about the influences of free will, Ridley says, “ Everyone’s fate is determined

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In the free will debate, Strawson is firm in his belief that there is a fundamental sense in which free will is impossible regardless of whether or not determinism is true(pg.309). Strawson represents his position in what is known as the “basic argument”, a three-premise argument that draws the conclusion that no one is ultimately morally responsible for their actions. The first premise is “When I act or choose to act I do so because of the way I am psychologically(pg.309). This idea is based on the fact that we act upon motives. The second premise is “To be ultimately morally responsible for how I act, I must be untimely responsible for the way I am psychologically(pg.309).

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In "Human Freedom and the Self", Roderick Chisholm has taken a libertarian approach on the issue of free will and determinism. Libertarians believe that humans have free will and make a distinction that free will and determinism are incompatible. Chisholm has the same opinion. On the problem of human freedom, Chisholm thinks that “Human beings are responsible agents; but this fact appears to conflict with a deterministic view of human action (the view that every event that is involved in an act is caused by some other event); and it also appears to conflict with an indeterministic view of human action (the view that the act, or some event that is essential to the act, is not caused at all).”(Page 3). He does not agree that determinism or indeterminism

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Determinism is a theory that all things in the world is governed by laws. This theory is based upon the materialist view of the body and mind. Materialists think that all things that exist in this world matter. We, humans, have mind or souls and desired interests are based upon actions. This principal argues that we have no moral responsibilities and choices.

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The author Tennessee Williams has written make works of literature however there is one play in particular that is full of symbolism. A Streetcar Named Desire is a play about the interactions of two sisters, Stella and Blanche, and Stella’s husband Stanley. Theses characters go through many ups and downs while living with each other and experience terrifying and wonderful things. The author Tennessee Williams uses a lot of symbolism when it comes to light and darkness.

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In “Free Will and Determinism”, Theodore Sider introduced different perspectives on free will, namely hard determinism, libertarianism and compatibilism. Hard determinists reject free will, whereas libertarians reject determinism. And, compatibilists took believe that determinism and free will can co-exist by redefining free will as “a free action is one that is caused by the person’s beliefs and desires, provided that those beliefs and desires flow from ‘who the person is’.”

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By choosing to act a certain way instead of another, you had the freedom to act any way you wanted to and differently. Choices that you make are not predetermined in the future which means that determinism itself has to be wrong. This means that we have the absolute free will over every single choice made in our daily lives. If someone does something wrong, why should they be punished if they were just simply going by their predetermined script? If that were true, they’d have no say over their wrong choices, just like the rain has no say for falling from the sky.

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“I believe the freedom to choose my course in life but I do not believe I am free to choose the consequences of my

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Given the idea of free-will, people feel more independent. By believing in free-will, a person is thought to have control in their choices. According to Commentary on Science and Society, people want to have freedom in their choices. This statement reveals that most people believe in free-will because of their need to be independent and have control

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1. In western philosophy such terms as determinism, free will, and moral responsibility are treated differently by different authors. There are three main positions on determinism, free will, and moral responsibility. Those who adhere with hard determinism assert that everything in our world and our actions are predetermined, and decisions we make are not completely ours; moral responsibility is the reflection of free will. Soft determinism philosophers’

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Determinism is the claim that every event is determined by the past and laws of nature 2. If every event is determined by the past and laws of nature, then each of my actions is determined by the past and the laws of nature 3. If one of my actions is determined by the past and the laws of nature, then I could not have done otherwise than action unless I can control the past and the laws of

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There are things that we do and we know that they are bad for us, but we keep doing them because they are out of our control. Similarly, there are some good things, like exercising, eating healthy foods, learning some good-but-complicated things, and so on, that we do not do and we do not like to do because some forces keep us from doing them. If you think that you can choose to do something freely the way you want a, think again and deeper, because something else caused you to decide doing that specific thing instead of doing something else instead. Or perhaps you did not have other choices. These and many more are all examples of determinism.

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Compatibilists think that determinism is actually required to act freely, because if there were no causes and effects for a person to be connected to, their actions would become random, chaotic, and unpredictable and therefore their actions are not truly “free” since such

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Even if all the evidence is against the free will, we will still have quite distinct subjective feeling of a freedom of will. And why, in general, freedom of will is so important to us? What do we lose by abandoning the right of free choice? Why there are so many emotions and expression around this topic? The answer is simple and terrible - along with the loss of the idea of free will, we automatically lose our individuality on all merits, achievements, all plans and dreams - that's what scares and causes resistance.

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