All of our Choices are Predetermined Essay

The Universe appears to be governed entirely by laws, studies of physics attend to show that atoms follow an extremely predictable pattern of cause and effect. This presents a difficult problem for philosophy if all physical matter is governed by the laws of cause and effect, and we ourselves be comprised of physical matter, how could it be so that either selections we fit could be convergen to be clear?The suggestion that our excerptions argon set pop out by cause and effect is haven as Determinism. Philosophers such as Ted Honderich have considerd for determinism and for the consequences that it cancels out free lead. It seems insensible to argue that we be not in the least bit persistent, and almost all people know from personal experience that people crop in a comparatively stable and predictable way. For example, if I were to ask my father if he treasured tea or cocoa, I would know that he would want coffee ground on his love of coffee, and hatred for tea. This optence could not be argued in any way to be a choice do by him, we do not choose what we like, nevertheless only when do.Whether our p citeences ar based on nature or nurture is an ongoing debate, but regardless of the final conclusion, as long as our opinions atomic number 18 based on either of the two options, we would be seen to be determined. Nature is not in our control, neither on the other hand, is nurture. If our personalities are based on environsal or genetic factors and nothing else then our actions are for sure determined. This place is extremely convincing and was famously used by Clarence Darrow to forestall two murderers from receiving the finis penalty, he argued that they where a product of their upbringing and as such could not be held chastely responsible for their actions. This meant, while they could be jailed to pr howevert threat to society, they could not be punished with the death penalty.The dioramapoint of Determinism, while convincing, is by no means universally accepted. The cause seems to go against our intuitions that we are free -although it is notable at this point that our intuitions themselves are philosophically worthless, we cannot argue for an component part of truth on the grounds that we tonicity it is true- and is seemingly incompatible with the view of a God who punishes and rewards his creations with heaven and hell. If our actions are predetermined, then it seems that punishment in hell would be arbitrary. God would simply be creating people in a flawed way, and then knockout them for his poor skills of creation. Needless to say, this viewpoint is not accepted by umteen Christians and so there have been many arguments for a lack of determinism in philosophy.The belief of Libertarianism, is that we are completely free in the words of Jean-Paul Sartre I am not free not to be free. though Sartres beliefs on free forget were more assertions than arguments of proofs, he summarises the Libertarian vi ew point perfectly. All our actions are completely freely chosen, our only task is that we cannot be confined.Libertarianism has the difficult task of explaining how it is possible to patronize non-determined choices in an environment where all things seem to be determined by cause and effect. As already stated, if our disposition is held to be nothing but a get out of nature of nurture, then determinism must be accepted as a matter of logical consistency.From this, many Libertarians would stipulate the existence of a super-natural element to our personality. For example, if one were to believe in a soul, then it is possible to argue the physical laws of cause and effect have no bearing on our actions. This does seem to contradict fairly obvious observable evidence. Psychology has much found causes for human behaviour, and it is difficult to explain the consistency and successes of this particular scientific discipline if we do not accept that our choices are determined in some way.One of the more successful attempts of Libertarianism to discredit Determinism is the pointing to laws of physics that do not seem to obey causality. Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle shows limpid examples of elements of nature acting randomly, and not due to cause and effect. There are two main criticisms that can be make of this argument One, that this dominion only functions on an minute level, while actual objects such as people thus far obey determined laws of physics (although science has be the principle can be amplified to affect people), and Two, that even where actions random, there would still not be free will, while we would not live in a predetermined environment, we would still live in a (randomly) determined environment. If one was to roll a dice in order to fall the actions a prisoner should take, they would not be considered free by any means.The fundamental flaw of Libertarianism, is that when we examine how it would work, it seems to collapse. As all cho ices are made according to our personality, a serial killer, is only so because he has a serial killers personality. This statement would suggest determinism and could only be argued against in two waysFirstly, we could state that the serial killer has no personality, this however, seems nearly impossible to uphold. Without personality, we would have no preferences and without preferences we could not make any choice at all. Asking someone who has no preference of keen over evil, or pleasure over pain, to make a moral decision would be rather like asking someone whether they prefer white to white. Without personality, we would not be able to make any choice at all, as no options would appeal to us over others. It could be argued, that decisions can still be made according to rationalism, but as rationalism and logic are consistent discipline this would make our actions even more predictable and un-chosen than determinism suggests. So this argument cannot be used to defend Libertari anism.Secondly, we could suggest that the Serial-Killer was in some way in control of his personality. That he chose his preference of evil over good. This again fails. As we have already stated, choices cannot be made without personality, so to choose a personality we would convey a personality for us to choose, this initial personality would determine the personality we chose. We could attempt to argue that this initial personality was chosen, but very in brief we would have to give way to infinite regression.With this in mind, Libertarianism and the suggestion that our choices are anything but pre-determined or random, is not only completely incompatible with the live model of physics and psychology, but more importantly is incompatible with choice it ego (as choice requires preference, preference designates personality which in turn suggests determinism). Libertarianism is a self defeating system in that it requires an absence of will to prove free will, which would be render ed useless without will.There is also a logical argument against Libertarianism. J.J.C pain points out that there are two possible states of things, i.e. determinism or indeterminism. both determinism is true, or indeterminism is true, these exhaust all possible philosophical options. Determinism would prevent a Libertarian view as our choices are predetermined, indeterminism would seem to prevent Libertarian view also, as our choices are random and thus not controlled or free. From this argument, we can see that a Libertarian argument for free will is impossible.It seems undeniable whence, that all our choices are pre-determined -or in the least part random, whether our choices are in fact pre-determined or random is largely down to physicists to discover, currently it seems to be that we are in fact pre-determined, but this cannot be assured without knowledge of all physics. raze if our choices are not predetermined, what they are not -as has been argued in the course of this essay- is freely chosen, at least according to the viewpoint of free will presented by libertarianism. But what would the effects of this be?Hard determinism would argue that we cannot claim to give free will in a deterministic environment. The problem with this position seems to be that we have defined free will incorrectly. The view of free-will as indifference, has in the course of this essay been demonstrated as problematic, and if we adopt this view of free-will then hard determinism would seem an agreeable viewpoint, the problem is, that this seems an utterly mindless way of discussing free will.Free will does not appear to refer to the ability of will to change itself, when we refer to a free lion, we do not mean it is free to change to a tiger or a bird, we simply mean it is free to act according to its nature. It would therefore seem to be more useful to discuss free will in the sense of a will being able to act itself out, we are free if we could have chosen otherwise HA D our will been different. This Compatibilist approach adopted by David Hume seems to allow us to discuss free will in a meaningful way, within what seems to be a predetermined environment.