On freedom and choice Essay Example

observable and understandable laws. If we restarted today, it would happen exactly as it is happening, the only way it can happen.

In 1814, the French astronomer and mathematician Marquis Pierre-Simon Lovelace published an essay in which he wrote "we may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. "(Basophilic Essay on Probabilities, page 2). Lovelace later went on to write that if there existed a creature that knew "all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed" and was capable of analyzing this information, "... Toting would be uncertain [for it], and the future, like the sat, would be open to its eyes."(Philosophical essay on probabilities, page 2).  In fact, one could argue that the very existence of the word "why" ("for what cause, reason, or purpose; wherefore...For which; on account of which... ") further bolsters Lapse's causal/scientific determinism. It implies that the present is the result of the past, like dominoes knocking down one another or like a ball rolling down a hill. If we asked the ball why it is rolling down the hill, it would recount earlier events.

Therefore, all our actions (and everything that will ever happen, has happened and is happening) are determined by the past. All we are capable Of is responding in a predetermined way to already existing things and events. Although the Transformational believe that the whys and wherefores do not matter, they matter to those of us who ask if free will is possible and whether determinism is correct (if the Transformational in Slaughterhouse Five are

to be believed, it is a question unique to our species).

The nature of time could also offer insight into whether free choice exists. In the 1 sass, Isaac Newton pictured all time as moving ATA fixed pace, identical for everything and everyone everywhere. Come the early 1 9005, Einstein gave us an new theory: that time is relative; factors such as speed and mass can alter the rate at which time passes for separate objects. He "unified space and time into a single 4-D entity. "  Now, we are being challenged to view time as happening Simi Tenuously, always (as Evensong's Transformational do).

In fact, Julian Barbour, a renowned English physicist, is questioning time as a measurement of change. He believes in the "block universe" (eternalness), that space-time is an unchangeable four-dimensional block. This is the version of time that the Transformational experience. This model allows for absolutely no free will as everything is happening, has happened and will always happen the way it has to occur; "so it goes", as the one-eyed little green men say. We have no proof that moments exist one at a time other than the fact that we perceive them that way, which is no proof at all.

The way the Transformational see it, "all moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.

[They] can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are Chapter 2, section 7, paragraph 3). According to the Transformational, the illusion of time being a gradual process is exclusive to

Earth. To establish whether we are in control of our choices, we have to know what constitutes "us".

Consider the strictly physical aspect of our being. Physical determinism imposes that what makes us all "unique" is an incomprehensibly complex network Of neurons. It's generally accepted that all laws Of physics apply to chemistry and therefore to biological chemistry. If that's the case, then the particles and cells in the brain behave in a predictable manner and our choices are not our own, but determined entirely by the laws of physics and metaphysics. Think of how little control a paranoid schizophrenic has over his thoughts and his actions. If a healthy mind exercises as much power over one's decisions as an ill mind, then free will may well be non-existent.

Looking at a human being in such simple terms makes us akin to machinery, programmed by generations upon generations of personal experiences, passed down in the form of instinct, intuition and our own special cocktail of genes. Another factor that must surely affect our will is our conditioning environment. What this entails is essentially everything that will occur in our lives between our birth and death which will help to form our long term morals, ideals and beliefs.

Our choices are therefore made by what/who we are (our past, our genes, and so on) and we are powerless to decide that, the only thing that really matters. 95% of our thoughts and decisions are made subconsciously, leaving only a small margin for conscious veto. 9 Even if we assume that the conscious mind allows us to make decisions without the deterministic influence of external (and internal) factors

(which is near impossible), we are still little more than an emotionally invested audience in our own lives. Arthur Schopenhauer famously said, "man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills" 10.

Thus, the majority of fields concerned with human affairs provide strong arguments which bolster determinism. The arguments presented in this essay were the nature of time in relation to the possibility of determinism, the argument of causality and what it is which makes a person into who/what they are.

It is likely that free choice does not exist in a deterministic universe. However, one has to ask questions like, what difference does it make if we truly have freedom as long as we're under the impression that we do?