Our Free Will :: essays research papers fc

Our Free WillWe ought indeed regard the present state of the universe as the effect ofits previous state and the cause of the atomic number 53 which is to follow. An intelligenceknowing at a given instant of time entirely the forces operating in nature, as wellas the position at that instant of all things of which the universe consists,would be able to comprehend the motions of the largest bodies in the universeand those of the smallest atoms in a single formula - provided that it wassufficiently powerful to select all these data analysis. To it nothing wouldbe uncertain and the future would be present to its eyes as much as the past.This passage comes from P.S. de Laplaces Philosophical see onProbabilities. If such determinism is true, then everyones every thought andaction must be inevitable that no one rattling has any choice most anything,because we are all helpless products of blind forces which have made us what weare. In this paper concerning the free will and determin ism debate I will consider that determinism is not plausible, I shall do this by giving reasons fordetermining how determinism is false, give arguments for determinism, and thenrefute those arguments.There are those who think that our behavior is a terminus of free choice,but there are others who presume we are servants of cosmic destiny or thatbehavior is nothing but a reflex of heredity and environment. The positionof determinism is that every event is the necessary outcome of a cause or setof causes. That everything is a consequence of external forces, and suchforces produce all that happens. Man is not free. If we accept thedeterminist argument and assume human behavior as a consequence of externalfactors rather than of free choice, then we must realize that our explanationof human behavior leaves no room for morality. If people do not choose theiractions, then they are not really responsible for them, and there is no needfor praising or blaming them. If determinism were true, then there would be nobasis for human effort, for why should a soul make an effort if what he orshe does doesnt make a difference? If what will be will be, then one has anexcuse for doing nothing. Life would not be so meaningful for people ondeterministic grounds. The nature of human life may be such that man must construe himself as being free, for human life as we know it would not makemuch sense without the concept of freedom.