The People Who Have the Power to Exercise Free Will - Essay Example

23 November Assignment Free Will is the method of allowing agents of individuality to dwell in the society within their own terms and conditions. The people who have the power to exercise free will do not depend on any third party to determine their actions and positions in the society. Free will allows people to have a methodological way of living which is guarded b their own inhibitions and their ideologies. They are free to do as they please, according to their personal will and are not bound by any restrictions or morals imposed upon them by society. However, this can have repercussions as individuals following their own free will do not tend to listen to others around them and do as they please. This does not always work out cordially within a society full of different kinds of people because of varying needs that each person has from the other. Most people are under the impression that every individual has their own personal free will according to which they make choices and decisions. However, people often forget to understand that sometimes these choices come from the values and morals that have been imposed upon them as they grow up. In that case, these beliefs are not mapped by their own free will, but are determined in the manner that they are raised. My take on freewill is based upon an individual’s own disposition of which is derived from their possessions, such as possessions of social environment, religion and of family’s general views of life. We all come from families with views on religion or at least of life itself, through these possessions we develop subconscious bias opinions or tendencies, which are the foundation of an individual’s decision making. However, as we get older we become aware of other views or perspectives of life, and can choose to implement them in a way that is conducive to what we want to become. You cannot determine where or how you are born, as that is determined for you, nor can you determine who raises you and what bias views they pass on to you. Nonetheless, as a person gets older they can choose to retain all of the previous convictions passed down to them or can chose to see things in a different manner - though, it will still be from the same mind that has possession of influences that are particular to his or her life, even if they may be subtle. Every man is born under certain circumstances and conditions which remain constant at his birth. He does not have the power to change that certain thing about his life and he has to take whatever comes his way with regard to that aspect of his life. However, once a person starts to grow up, things start to change for him. He sees different things and experiences different aspects of his life and starts to perceive them according to his will. The will starts to develop at the age of 8-9 and continues till the death of human beings. The will of a human being is developed throughout his life. Once a man is able to see the world from his own eyes, he starts to analyse his life with respect to his personal beliefs rather than the beliefs of other people being imposed on him. Most people are raised believing that their religion is the best one and that they should be happy they do not belong to any other. When a child is born, he is made to undergo certain rituals and rites according to the religion that his family is in. Throughout the course of his life, he is told things and led to believe that his religion is the sole guiding principle that will help him achieve whatever he wants in life. However, very few parents and families provide leverage to the child by making him aware of all the different religions in the world and letting him choose his own faith. In some families, children turn rebellious and begin to adopt a new way of life, by accepting the rites and rituals of a different religion as per their own free will. Every time a person adopts something within him, according to his own beliefs and faith in things, he is taking to free will rather than having his life being determined by anything or anyone else. Determinism thus comes from the equivalence of everything having a reason or a significant cause attached to it. A cause is something that suffices enough to provide a reason for the purpose of something happening. For example, the state of the universe revolves around a set of particular facts and laws which have been determined from the way certain things react in the atmosphere. These actions have been determined by philosophers and scientists and people believe in them as a rule. A person can however not determine where or how he may be born as that is already determined and is like a stroke of luck. However, as a person gets older, they become more and more aware of the things around them and have the choice of either retaining the values and beliefs that they have been brought up with, or discarding them and adopting new ones. It is the choice of a person as to how he or she would like to implement something in their lives. Free will is compatible with determinism even though the two terms sound absolutely contradictory to each other. It is termed as soft determinism and when it is not compatible, it is termed as liberitarianism or hard determinism. There must be two things kept in mind while either practising determinism or free will; every action remains free only if the cause for carrying out the action remains internal to the agent rather than external. Thus, this in simple terms means that every action is only free if it is caused by the beliefs and desires of the agent. ("Free Will and Determinism.") A number of philosophers have suggested that true free will does not exist in reality. However, despite that one can easily discuss the characteristics that free will would have, in a rational manner, if in case it did happen to exist. Edwin Ott writes, “this intellectual activity is analogous to defining the characteristics of randomness even though true randomness does not exist. So what are some of the characteristics of free will? I believe the principal characteristic of free will is that whatever choices or decisions we make, these choices or decisions should be dependent upon the character or state of our individual being.” “That is, I make choices or decisions based upon who I am. My choices or decisions are not random, nor are they the direct result of someone else’s being. This is achieved in a determined universe, not an undetermined universe. In a determined universe, I am the product of all events which I or my ancestors have experienced. I am a unique being and my choices or decisions are the result of who I am! Thus, I have the principal characteristic of free will even though the universe is determined.” (Ott, Edwin) However, as per Edwin’s article, he has also mentioned that a number of actions may be free but are caused by other actions triggering them. For example, a number of people can be influenced into believing a certain way of living life and continue doing that if it appeals to them. Some people can be brainwashed into believing a number of things. In this case, they carry out actions because certain desires have been enforced upon them, and have not necessarily been acquired by themselves. Some people also tend to be affected by certain addictions that they have. In this case, their addiction forces them to carry out certain actions and they feel as if they cannot help themselves but carry out those actions. In other cases, people are also lied to and their actions are manipulated by the actions of other people and they are made to believe in something entirely different than what they would had they have acquired those actions normally. Finally, people also may be threatened or coerced into believing certain things and carrying out various actions. Therefore, in understanding and summarising his article, he says that an action is only free if a person has a rational frame of mind while carrying it out. The person must not be conflicted by other beliefs and desires, and thus they must come from within him. (Orr, Edgar W) Furthermore his beliefs and desires should not be averse to modification by information coming from the outside. They should be flexible in nature however should not be completely prone to being changed by brainwashing or coercion. In this way, one can easily determine what free will is and what is not. Freedom is a very large and varying concept depending from person to person and thus should not conflict with the ideas of another person. If a person has to actually make sacrifices in his freedom for another person’s then his actions do not constitute any aspect of free will. Various religious philosophers like St Augustine have also talked about free will and determinism, giving leverage to hard determinism. According to him, the human will is a very corrupt sphere. He stated that no human being had the ability to perform any good deed without being guided by God in the form of Jesus Christ. He said that among the people there were a few that were chosen by God and only those people could ultimately, in the end, achieve salvation. God is omnipresent; this is a fact that most people having any sort of faith in religious principles have been following through the ages. However, St Augustine said that it was pertinent to note that just because God’s presence could be felt everywhere it did not mean that people have free will. People should thus live their lives fearing God and should understand that God has all knowledge of the choices and the decisions that people make. Everything has been written from before and people are merely puppets in the hand of God, following their destinies. Augustine reasoned that there are three types of events: Those that appear to be caused by chance (the cause is hidden from us) Those caused by God Those caused by us “Some things are beyond our control such as death, while other things are within our control such as the decision whether or not to lead a good life. Parallels can be drawn between the thinking of Augustine and the different causes of events and soft determinism and their distinction between internal causes and eternal causes.” (Berofsky, Bernard) “Even St. Augustine said that Adam's will was neither inclined towards evil or good, but as such, a neutral power, as can either incline toward faith, or turn towards unbelief... (NPNF2, Vol 5, p 109). He also says: “God no doubt wishes all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the Truth; but yet not so as to take away from them free will...” (Ibid, p.109) ...if he had willed by his own free will to continue in this state of uprightness and freedom from sin, assuredly without any experience of death and unhappiness he would have received by the merit of that continuance the fulness of blessing with which the holy Angels are also blessed; that is the impossibility of falling any more, and the knowledge of this with absolute certainty. (On Rebuke and Grace, ch 28, NPNF2 5:483) The first man had not that grace by which he should never will to be evil, but assuredly he had that in which if he willed to abide he would never be evil, and without which, moreover, he could not by free will be good, but which, nevertheless, by free will he could forsake. God therefore, did not will even him to be without his grace, which he left in his free will: because free will is sufficient for evil but is too little for good, unless it is aided by omnipotent good. And if that man had not forsaken that assistance of his free will, he would always have been good; but he forsook it, and he was forsaken. (Ibid., 484) St. Augustine is as close to a patristic basis for the Calvinist idea of free will and predestination as one can find, and yet where does he say that the fall was unavoidable? Where does he say anything about God withdrawing his grace—but on the contrary, we have God's grace available to a man who could either cooperate with it, or reject it. Thus, as wrong as St. Augustine was on other points in this regard, he clearly did not hold to the idea that God determined that Adam would fall, not regardless of how he would respond to God.” (Augustine, and Thomas Williams) In conclusion, the concept of free will and determinism goes hand in hand and accounts ultimately for the way an individual is able to conduct his or her own freedom. Free will however, is not something that exists as discussed within this scope of this paper, as it is something that has already been determined by the way people live their lives and not by how they want to in a normative sense. Works Cited "Free Will and Determinism." Trinity University | Welcome. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. . Berofsky, Bernard. Free Will and Determinism. New York: Harper & Row, 1966. Print. Augustine, and Thomas Williams. On Free Choice of the Will. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1993. Print. Orr, Edgar W. Free Will and Determinism. London: Excalibur of London, 1989. Print. Ott, Edwin. "FREE WILL/DETERMINISM." FuturePerspective Home Page. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. . Read More