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Free will vs. Determinism Essay Free Will versus Determinism Right now I am writing this paper, for philosophy class, and it is due tomorrow. The question is, from the time I was born, was it pre-determined that I was going to write this paper? Since the beginning of religion, people have argued whether or not everything we do is pre-determined. The belief that every action a person makes has been pre-determined is called determinism. On the other side of this belief is the belief of free will. Free will is the belief that a person chooses what happens to them through their own actions. In the argument of free will versus determinism, there are three positions that can be taken for this argument. The positions that can be taken are hard determinism, libertarianism, and soft determinism. Hard determinism is the belief that everything in the universe is determined by casual laws, or is pre-determined. Libertarianism is the belief that there are some actions in which a person causes the outcome or in other words, the belief that people choose what happens to them. And finally, there is soft determinism. Soft determinism is the belief that there are certain things in life that are pre-determined and there are some things in life that a person chooses to happen through their actions. I believe that soft determinism is true because there really are certain things in life that are pre-determined, but there are also things that people have control over. Every day, a person makes hundreds if not thousands of choices; choices that will lead to actions, which will lead to an outcome of any given situation. I believe that for certain things in life, people decide what happens to them based on their actions or choices. But just as I believe that people make their own choices, I also believe that there are certain things in life that are pre-determined. I believe that free will and determinism go hand at hand though. There are certain things in life that a person has no control over. For example, when a person is born, they cannot choose what family they can be related to. A person cannot choose what their face is going to look like, or the color of their skin, or even something like their name. All of these qualities of a person are all pre-determined before birth. A person does not have free will to choose these qualities while in the mother’s womb. Just as there are these things that cannot be chosen, there are many things that a person can choose to be a part of their life that is not pre-determined. For instance, a person can choose who their friends are, what color they like, what food they like, and even things like hobbies that they enjoy doing. In my opinion, free will and determinism work along with each other. I believe that both determinism and free will are true. In my opinion, they work with each other. I believe that since we can’t choose what environment we grow up in, it effects how we make our choices. In other words, our culture has a strong effect on our own personal decision making. In fact, our free will decision making is formed from our past experiences. There are some philosophers who don’t agree with soft determinism. A man by the name of Baron d’Holbach is a strong believer of hard determinism. d’Holbach believes that what we call free will is simply just a modification of the physical brain. We necessarily seek to enhance/ensure our own existence. As natural beings, we are wholly subject to laws of nature. In this sense, forces independent of us create desires/drives in us that determine what we do. What he means by this is that is that we only believe that we have free will. And that the choices that we make are already pre-determined based on the environment we live in. Another philosopher by the name of William James believes in libertarianism. According to James, there is always some ‘loose play’ among parts of the universe, multiple possibilities for how things can be. Whatever does actually happen happens because of chance, not out of necessity or natural laws. In other words, he believes that either everything is determined, or everything is up to chance. I disagree with both of these views. I believe that there is a mixture of both determinism and libertarianism. I disagree with Baron d’Holbach because I believe that free will does in fact exist. For me, it makes sense that free will is true. There are certain things that need to have free will in order to exist. The best example of this is regret. Regret comes when a person makes a choice. If free will does not exist, than people don’t necessarily make choices, and without choices being made, than regret cannot exist. There needs to be free will for certain things in life to exist. I also disagree with William James. I believe that it is foolish to believe in the â€Å"all or none† principle. James believes that either there is all just pure determinism, or all free will, not both. It is impossible for there to be free will for everything. For example, people cannot choose what they are going to look like. People also cannot choose who their family is or what their birth name is. But, I also believe the same to be true with pure determinism. I believe that it is nonsense to believe that a person doesn’t choose their friends, what they take interest in, or what sort of events happen to them throughout the course of their life. I do believe that there are certain things that are pre-determined, but it doesn’t make sense to believe that everything is pre-determined. Every single day, people make decisions that will affect what will happen to them. There are things in a person’s life that happen by choice, and there are also things that happen that people have no control over. I believe that soft determinism is true because there really are certain things in life that are pre-determined, but there are also things that people have control over. It cannot lean one way or the other because there needs to be both. I believe that these two work hand at hand in order to form out what happens to a person throughout their life. Bibliography 1. TheologySummary History of World Religions. On Morality, Free Will God. Philosophy: Free Will vs. Determinism: WSM Explains Limited Freedom / Determinism in Necessarily Connected Universe. N. p. , n. d. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. .

Odysseus in The Odyssey Essay -- Papers Odyssey Homer Essays

Odysseus in The Odyssey Odysseus is the main character in an epic poem called the Odyssey. In the poem Odysseus has had some bad luck getting home, with some of the gods helping him and some hindering him; his journey towards home is a constant struggle. In this poem we see a man being broke and rebuilt, through constant irony his faith was damaged and without the help of Athena he probably would have given up on his journey. Through his hard work and wise spirit he finally does achieve his goal. Odysseus must journey from Troy to his homeland of Ithaca. Throughout this journey Odysseus experiences a lot of inconsistent emotions. A lot of this is attributed to the physical and mental hell he goes through on this remarkable journey. With the help of the Gods he finally does return to Ithaca. Odysseus arrives on the shore of Phaecia, in Book VI of the Odyssey. His most helpful and favorable goddess has sent Nausicaa a dream compelling her to wash clothes in preparation for an upcoming marriage. Athena makes Nausicaa brave and Odysseus handsome bringing them together in order to assist Odysseus to the house of the king. Athena said ? How so remiss, and yet thy mothers daughter? Leaving thy clothes uncared for, Nausikaa, when thou must have store a marriage linen, and put thy minstresly in wedding dress? (Book 6). In this book is an example of the gods assisting Odysseus, which compels me to question how great Odysseus really was? A god can make even a coward a hero (not saying Odysseus was a coward). Almost everything is done to help Odysseus and so he is fortunate to have the support of the gods especially in this book. ?But Athena poured a sea of fog around him as he went her loves expedient, that no jeer... ...he gods commands and travels inward till no man has seen the ocean. Carrying his large oar across his back and placing it in the dirt where a man asks him if the oar is a widowing fan. Odysseus is very wise. It would have been easy to have stayed at home and rested, but he knew what happened to people who did not obey the gods. In Conclusion, I have laid out some evidence showing Odysseus?s strength?s, Bravery, and faith. Also I have given examples of his dependency of the gods. I don?t believe anyone would argue that Odysseus was not a great man. Although I argue that he was still only a man. Between all of his hardships and troubles I will grant that he never lost faith and never chose a fate other than home. Works Cited Homer. ?The Odyssey,? World Masterpieces: Expanded Edition. Maynard Mack ed. Ed. Coptic St.: Prentice, 1995. 219-503.

Charles Dickens & Nicholas Nickleby’ Essay

The way Dickens presents the children as being so weak and vulnerable is yet another of the key ways in which Dickens convinces us that the way they are treated is unfair and wrong. An example of this is when they are described in the shop as ‘children with the countenances of old men, deformities with irons upon their limbs†¦ ‘ this shows that these children have all been ruined beyond repair by the all the awful treatment they have received. This makes the reader feel ever more sympathetic towards the children and all the while more disconcerted as to how children may be treated in the real world. The last but certainly not least character I am going to explore that is used by Dickens to attain sympathy is Smike. This character was originally one of the students at Dotheboys Hall but the payments then stopped coming and so Squeers kept him as a slave. When we see Smike for the second time is when we get a real impression about how sad his life has been. When Nicolas looks at him what he sees is a look that was ‘†¦ a very painful one†¦ for it told a long and very sad history. ‘ This shows that there is no limit as to how low a child’s welfare can drop in all things positive as Smike has dropped from being a over punished pupil, to a cruelly treated slave. The readers reaction to this is clearly one of compassion for the character, and then for children in similar situations in real life. To conclude, this book quite possibly has an important historical context as to how the lives of children have changed in Britain since that time. There is a good chance it may have changed the opinions of many of its readers and informed those who were unaware and opened the eyes of the people who were turning a blind one. The fact that it could have had such affect on the matter of the treatment of children makes it clear to me that Dickens wrote this book far more as a message to the people, than just as a source of monetary gain.

Essay on Jealousy in Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, and...

Jealousy in Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, and Winters Tale The common thread of jealousy ties together the main plots in Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, and The Winters Tale. In each of these plays, the main conflict is centered around some form of jealousy. While jealousy is the mutual, most prominent cause for turmoil in these plays, its effects on the characters, and ultimately the plots, is different in each case. This difference has much to do with the way in which the concept of jealousy is woven into each play, and what it is intended to accomplish. In Othello, the jealousy factor is deliberately introduced by Iago, with the precise intention of destroying those whom he feels have wronged him. Since it is†¦show more content†¦Ultimately, the deception based on Iagos jealousy, which resulted in Othellos induced jealousy, brought about the downfall of most of the characters in the play - including Iago himself. The way jealousy is introduced into the plot of The Winters Tale is much different than Othello, and thus it has different results. In Othello, the jealousy was incited by Iago, a character; in The Winters Tale, no one purposely inspired Leontes jealousy, he came about it on his own. In this way, no character wielded jealousy as a weapon against another but, rather, it was both introduced by and used on the same character. Leontes, although he specifically asked Hermione to be nice to Polixenes, completely misinterpreted her actions and took them to be signs of infidelity. He was so convinced by his jealousy that Hermione was unfaithful that he refused to believe the baby was his daughter, and had her sent away. Everyone suffered from Leontes jealous rage for sixteen years until Perdita came back and the misunderstanding was resolved. The difference in this resolution is that it had a happy ending. Although some characters died as a result of Leontes unfounded jealousy, all of the ma in characters ended up alive and happy. In this way, the jealousy did not have such a drastic, negative effect because it was not intended to by any of the characters. In Much Ado About Nothing,