As Human beings, we are free Essays - Determinism, Causality

As Human beings, we are free Essays - Determinism, Causality Andrew English Professor Snyder Intro. Philosophy April 22, 2015 Paper 2, Question 4 As Human beings, we are free the time we are born. The term we use for this is freewill. What I mean by saying this is that us as creatures, can choose whether to be, whatever we want. We are free to our own judgements and actions. Meaning that there is no overpowering force controlling our movements or our thoughts obliging us to do things we do not want to do. However, hard determinism says the exact opposite. According to hard determinism, determinism itself is true. Arguing that freewill does not exist. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics for much of the 20th century quoted, Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will. What Jawaharlal is explaining is that the tools you are given in life are absolute. But the way you use those tools is completely and utterly youre choosing. With this being said I believe that hard determinism cant be true due to the fact that no one has a sealed will at birth and as human beings we are independent. The definition of free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate. A persons ability to act at one's own discretion. Conversely hard determinism is a view on free will which holds that determinism is true, and that it is incompatible with free will and therefore that free will does not exist. Determinism is the philosophical thought that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Now what is being said here is that we arent responsible for our actions. Life is planned out and is following a pattern that cant be stopped. Whatever happens in ones life was meant to happen and it will continue to happen because thats just the way it is. Clarence Darrow, an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union quoted. Every instinct that is found in any man is in all men. The strength of the emotion may not be so overpowering, the barriers against possession not so insurmountable, the urge to accomplish the desire less keen. With some, inhibitions and urges may be neutralized by other tendencies. But with every being the primal emotions are there. All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike someone they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed anyone, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction. Clarence does bring up a good point saying that if a man is betrayed by another man, he can reach the point where the man will feel determined to kill him. Now the question that raises issue is that is it ones will to be determined to end someone life or is actually ones freewill to choose to end someone life. If we think about as being ones will to do harm then on a larger scale the disastrous things and events that people have started in the world was actually meant to happen? I believe different. I think that nothing in the world is planned (from a freewill standpoint) and that what we do is our own personal verdict. If hard determinism is correct then it possess a major issue with society as a whole. Not only would it make a fear within society but also adds that everything humans have done has been already planned out. For example if hard determinism is in fact true then that means that WW2 was meant to happen. It would mean that it was Adolf Hitlers will to control Germany, create the Nazis, exterminate over 5 million Jews, and spin the world into the deadliest Nuclear war of all time. If this is true then who would want live in a world where life is planned to that extent. No one wants to be like Hitler but how can you help it if thats your will? Another good example of this is imagine being a kid in a developing country. Poor, no food to eat, and you live in a small run