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Free Will Commentary: Soft Determinism and Hard Determinism and the Application of Morality
Free Will & Hard Determinism
Free will is a concept that holds that all individuals are free to make their own choices about their lives including their own health care, career pursuit, religious and moral choices. Within the realm of the discussion on free will is a concept known as hard determinism, which holds that if an action is required then it cannot be derived of free will and as well, holds the view that for any action there are causes that drive that action. Hard determinism holds that these drivers for action are inextricably linked to laws that are not personal and that are in the nature of mechanics. Free will from this view is such that does not actually exist since it would mean that causal laws play no part in determining the actions of the individual. Free will is such that makes the personal responsible on a moral level for their actions.
Free Will and Soft Determinism
Soft determinism on the other hand holds that while there is a cause for everything that causes have little to do with free will. The view of soft determinism is that any voluntary act is a free act. The thought of soft determinism is that both free will and the existence of causation on a universal level can exist compatibly.
It is the view of the soft determinist that the individual oftentimes does not feel as though they are forced or compelled to act and that when they are not forced and rather act on a voluntary basis that the individual has acted out of free will. The primary emphasis of the view of soft determinism...
However, from the impartial point-of-view, if there are no other options available then the state of being free does not in exist after all.
Characteristics of Free Will
Free will in ones' actions can be understood to be free will only if other viable options or choices exist to consider prior to making a decision concerning the individual's actions. For example, when one is raised to believe a certain way and has no other influences upon their belief system then they may believe that they exist in a state of free will when in fact; they only act upon the notion of free will because they do not have knowledge or experience of any other options.
Consider, if one will an individual who has always attended church on Sundays and worshiped in a certain congregation and who does not know that other congregations of religious beliefs exist. Because of their lack of knowledge of the alternatives or options of religious beliefs and practices, the individual while appearing to act out of free will does not in fact do so because for free will to exist then individual must have other choices and must be aware of those potential choices. Therefore, choices, options, and the knowledge of those alternatives must exist in order for free will to exist.
Morality
The application of morality differs from one culture to the other and from one set of belief systems to the other. Since the view of morality is such that depends on not only on who the individual attempting…
Human beings understand that their free will is not threatened by the future of the stars. Faith is a choice that need not be influenced by the fact that the sun will one day burn away. Nor is faith influenced by the ineffability of divine foreknowledge. Human beings have but a partial understanding of the divine and indeed of the universe. It is therefore not a matter of whether
Free Will vs. Fate In Oedipus the King by Sophocles, the main characters Laios and Oedipus do all that they can to avoid a prophecy that was told to them by an Oracle. King Laios was told that his own son would end up murdering him, and so upon the birth of the King Laios and Lady Iscostes' son, they bound his two feet together and gave him to a servant
Evaluating how a free market economy views human agency and free will, it is then seen that human beings in this kind of set-up are interpreted as rational human beings with the same capacities, abilities, and resources for competition in an invisible hand economy. Rather than the government, the majority of decisions on economic activities and transactions are then assumed by individual key players in the market (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market). Comparison of
Q3: Define free will and determinism. Discuss how free will and determinism are relevant to the following theories: Free will may be defined as the ability to make decisions independent of social, biological, and cognitive shaping mechanisms; determinism is the idea one is subject to such forces at cannot fundamentally alter one's future trajectory in a meaningful manner. Freud's psychoanalytic theory Freud took a highly deterministic view of how the human psyche was
3) Freud thinks that there are important mental events which effect how a person acts. His theory shows pieces of both free will and Determinism. He thinks actions are caused by subliminal elements in the psyche. Those events, because we don't realize they are affecting behavior, predetermine our reactions to events. But on the other hand, he thinks that a person can combat these latent-determining factors through therapy, he gives
Free will vs. Determinism To define his evolving notions of Original Sin in Christian theology, Augustine solidified in the doctrine Christianity a notion of the radical freedom of the human will -- what made human beings wonderfully distinct from animals, he argued, was the human ability to freely choose good or evil in action. Augustine's approach to the "free choice of the will" assumed that "humans had a will" and a