The term philosophy encompasses various meanings and raises many questions for example, it seeks to explore the true meaning of reality, truth, values, justice and beauty. (Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia, 240).
There are many terms used by philosophers that are often interpreted differently by other philosophers. Free will is an example as well as an important debatable issue. Some philosophers view free will as non existent, while others argue that it really exists and I strongly agree with the latter.
Every philosopher view the world according to his own culture and religion and that’s why each of them created different hypothesis and theories. Some argue that the environment plays a major role in shaping a person’s personality and therefore is held responsible for all his actions. Others claim that nature in itself has the upper hand with regard to the actions of human beings. While Blatchford stressed that predicting a person’s actions proves the non existence of free will.
(105) However, Stace controverted that there are both free and unfree will acts (112) but I disapprove with all the previous theories because my religious upbringing allows me to believe that free will determines our destiny. Philosophers like Mill believe that a person’s environment is the major shaper of his character. He believes that everything around the person affects his personality in some way or another and thereby directing his actions to reach a certain goal previously identified for him. He believes that a person has little power over forming his own character, since his character is formed by the circumstances surrounding him and since one of these circumstances is his desire to change. This desire is awakened when the person experiences painful consequences associated with his previous character (Mill, 477: 481).
The Essay on Character Analysis Of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Character Analysis of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome From beginning of the eighties and up until our days, there are more and more apocalyptical motives can be found in science fiction movies. The movie critics used to explain this by the fact that there used to be a lot of tension between USA and Soviet Union at the time, so people instinctively tried to imagine the worst possible future scenarios. ...
Mill also states that ‘ A person feels morally free who feels that his habits or his temptations are not his masters, but he theirs; ‘ (Mill, 480).
Free will is the ability of deciding freely what to do without fearing anything or being influenced by a habit, a temptation, an earlier experience or tendency. For example, I know two twins who come from a very religious and conservative family they were both brought up properly and lived in the same environment. One of them chose to conform with her family values and religious beliefs, while the other rebelled against those beliefs. She doesn’t pray, she smokes, drinks alcohol and pays no attention to her family values.
This example shows that any person possesses free will and that the environment influences the personality, but doesn’t determine his fate or decisions. Similarly, D’ claims that nature has the upper hand with regard to a person’s choices and that no one can deviate from the path drawn for him. He states that a person’s actions are reactions to forces implied upon him from outside objects, inside motivation or ideas. This is why his actions are never free they ” re always influenced by nature either internally or externally. Even when he doesn’t act according to those forces it is probably because a new motive or idea arose and thus a new force was created that directed his will in another path and preventing the former action from happening. (D’, 470: 472).
This theory states that nature decides for us and we are part of nature then we decide for ourselves. When we act with regard to our motivations or sets of ideas, then we are choosing to act this way because those forces directing us are coming from inside us. Thus free will does exist, because in any situation there are always more than one path and we always end up choosing only one. This chose we make is in fact our soul and our whole- being.
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Determinisms- Is the view that there are no free acts. Saying that there in no free will. Soft-Determinisms- Which maintains that free will is compatible with determinism. Libertarianism- is the view that there are some free acts, they admit that there are some acts which are not free. For example you don't have the ability to jump the moon. Arguments against Determinism- Is to challenge the ...
According to Blatchford, free will does exit but it is affected by both heredity and the environment. Blatchford states that if the will is free and not affected by anything then blaming a person for any of his actions is meaningless since the will is separate from that person as it is free and acts as it wishes. Blatchford denotes heredity by the temperament of the person and denotes that the effect of the environment by training. Thus to him a person is affected by his emotions, ideas, intelligence, mood, etc.
as well as by his surroundings and emotions. He adds that when a person hesitates to make a decision it is because there is a conflict inside him between his hereditary and environment, his personal traits and his customs or his feelings and his up bringing. Furthermore, his theory declares that knowing a person thoroughly we can predict his actions in any situation; since we can predict those actions, then there is no real free will. (Blatchford 102: 107).
However, this is not always the case because usually your predictions do not comply with what happens in reality as only God knows what will happen in the future. For instance, in the previously mentioned twin example, you would have predicted that both girls would have acquired the same ethics and morals as they were both subjected to the same religious beliefs and environmental experience, yet the outcome was completely different from our predictions; for one of the two girls turned out to be an alcoholic. Stace is one of the philosophers who called upon the real problem of free will. He asserted that free will really exists and that those who deny it’s existence, do so because of their misinterpretation of the word. Thus philosophers must first identify and agree upon only one meaning of free will. If a philosopher interprets the word differently, then the conflict here is non existent since the two opinions are based on entirely different matters or concepts.
Moreover, Stace’s theory implies that free acts are caused by internal factors like desires, motives and the person’s psychological state, while unfree acts are often caused by external forces and conditions. (Stace, 112).
He adds that we should not deny a good person his reward for a job well done just because we previously predicted that he will be able to do it well. (Stace, 114) On the contrary, we should encourage him by rewarding him for his good choices and behaviors. Stace is one of the few philosophers that I agree with because behavior is not predictable and whatever a person’s actions are, they are always stemming from his soul. In addition, to be fair we should reward good behavior and punish bad behavior.
The Term Paper on God’s Foreknowledge and the Problem of Evil
In his essay[1] on the possibility of God’s having middle knowledge of the actions of free agents and the relationship of that knowledge, if it exists, to the problem of evil,[2] RM Adams discusses two questions: firstly, whether middle knowledge is possible, even for God, and secondly, whether God could have made free creatures who would always freely do right. These questions highlight the ...
To sum up, man possesses free will in every aspect of his life. Through the past decades many philosophers emerged each having his own sets of ideas regarding the concept of free will. Some argue that nature was the most influential factor, others stated that a person’s environment and experiences are the major factor that affects people’s choices. Some thought that free will exists but it is affected by both heredity and environment. Another group of philosophers claimed that free will exists and in not affected by any forces because every free act stems from a person’s conscience and every person is totally responsible for his actions. God gave us the ability to choose between right or wrong and good or bad.
It is up to us whether to choose this way or the other. Ofcourse, God knows our choices in advance yet, God did not make our choices we made them ourselves. I believe in God’s justice and fairness. Our choice determines our fate; whether we should go to heaven and enjoy it’s delights or hell and experience the torture we deserve.
