...he Cost of “Free” Will in Oedipus Rex (the King) Perhaps the Greek playwright Sophocles never had the concept of “free will” in mind when writing Oedipus Rex, but the play does allow for that interesting paradox we know today as free will. The paradox is: if Oedipus is told by the gods' oracles that he will kill his father and marry his mother, does he have any power to avoid this fate? That's a basic free will question. If Oedipus manages to avoid killing his father and marrying his mother, he will prove the gods wrong, and the oracle prediction turns out to be no prediction at all. How free can we truly be if created by an all knowing being? If God knows, even at the moment before our births, that we are already destined to ascend to Heaven or burn in Hell, can we move through life making truly free decisions? Or are we always to be viewed as puppets of destiny? Was Adam to be blamed for the fall? Or was that actually God's plan? So what is this idea of "original sin?" Shouldn't we celebrate Adam as a hero for freeing man from the state of unawareness that he lived in until he consumed the sacred pomegranate? Recall that the very first line following Adam and Eve's sin is "And they saw that they were naked." This nakedness is not so much of the body (though early Christians loved to view it that way), but rather a sense of viewing, as Joseph Campbell puts it, "duality," the basic difference between man and woman, right and wrong, and, ultimately, man and...
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...there lies a paradox. How can people have free will if every action has been predetermined? Philosophers have debated whether the existence of free will is directly challenged by the existence of determinism, and in turn have created four possible outcomes. (Timpe, K, 2004) The first is hard determinism. This believes that complete determinism is true, that all actions are pre-conceived and reliant on the past in order to occur, thus rendering free will to be impossible. Following this, there is a compatibilist view. This view believes that although determinism is true, there is still the possibility for free will to occur (Smith, Q & Oaklander, L, 1995). Thirdly, there is hard incompatibilism. This encompasses the belief that determinism is completely false, and that free will is also not possible. Finally, there is libertarianism, another incompatibilist belief. In this, it is believed that determinism is ultimately false, and because of this, free will can occur (Smith, Q & Oaklander, L, 1995). Going back to the determinist viewpoint: how is free will directly challenged by such a belief? Ultimately, free will does not exist within such a theory. Within determinism, all things are pre-determined (Honderich. T 2015). The past has direct impact on the way things will occur in the future, and because of this, there are no choices, only actions that were always going to happen in one particular way. This inherently proves that free will cannot exist cohesively with this...
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...A man who cannot choose ceases to be a man."Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange is a novel about moral choice and free will. Alex's story shows what happens when an individual's right to choose is robbed for the good of society. The first and last chapters place Alex in more or less the same physical situation but his ability to exercise free will leads him to diametrically opposite choicesgood versus evil. The phrase, "what's it going to be then, eh?," echoes throughout the book; only at the end of the novel is the moral metamorphosis complete and Alex is finally able to answer the question, and by doing so affirms his freedom of choice. The capacity to choose freely is the attribute that distinguishes humans from robots; thus the possibility of true and heartfelt redemption remains open even to the most hardened criminal. A Clockwork Orange is a parable that reflects the Christian concept of sin followed by redemption. Alex's final and free choice of the good, by leaving behind the violence he had embraced in his youth, brings him to a higher moral level than the forced docility of his conditioning, which severed his ability to choose and grow up. The question, "what's it going to be then, eh," is asked at the beginning of each section of the novel. In the first and third part it is asked by Alex, but in the second part it is asked by the prison chaplain. The answer does not come until the end of the novel when Alex grows up and exercises his ability to choose...
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...The Cost of “Free” Will in Oedipus Rex (the King) Perhaps the Greek playwright Sophocles never had the concept of “free will” in mind when writing Oedipus Rex, but the play does allow for that interesting paradox we know today as free will. The paradox is: if Oedipus is told by the gods' oracles that he will kill his father and marry his mother, does he have any power to avoid this fate? That's a basic free will question. If Oedipus manages to avoid killing his father and marrying his mother, he will prove the gods wrong, and the oracle prediction turns out to be no prediction at all. How free can we truly be if created by an all knowing being? If God knows, even at the moment before our births, that we are already destined to ascend to Heaven or burn in Hell, can we move through life making truly free decisions? Or are we always to be viewed as puppets of destiny? Was Adam to be blamed for the fall? Or was that actually God's plan? So what is this idea of "original sin?" Shouldn't we celebrate Adam as a hero for freeing man from the state of unawareness that he lived in until he consumed the sacred pomegranate? Recall that the very first line following Adam and Eve's sin is "And they saw that they were naked." This nakedness is not so much of the body (though early Christians loved to view it that way), but rather a sense of viewing, as Joseph Campbell puts it, "duality," the basic difference between man and woman, right and wrong, and, ultimately, man...
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...Human’s free will is one of the most debatable problems in the field of both philosophy and ethics. Does everybody has a control on his choices and actions or it all was determined in advance. According to the Scottish philosopher David Hume on the problem of free will: “the most contentious question of metaphysics, the most contentious science” [1]. Free will is defined as the ability of humans to make decisions that are not determined by divine intervention or caused by a preceding cause [2]. It is agreed by philosophers who dealt with the problem of free will that a human is not free to make a choice unless he could have done otherwise, in what is known as the principle of alternative possibilities [3]. The free will problem arose in the Greek mythology in many instances such as the tragedy of Oedipus in its different versions as Oedipus Rex by Sophocles....
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...To Build a Fire Summary A man travels in the Yukon (in Alaska) on an extremely cold morning with a husky wolf-dog. The cold does not faze the man, a newcomer to the Yukon, who plans to meet his friends by six o'clock at an old claim. As it grows colder, he realizes his unprotected cheekbones will freeze, but he does not pay it much attention. He walks along a creek trail, mindful of the dangerous, concealed springs; even getting wet feet on such a cold day is extremely dangerous. He stops for lunch and builds a fire. The man continues on and, in a seemingly safe spot, falls through the snow and wets himself up to his shins. He curses his luck; starting a fire and drying his foot-gear will delay him at least an hour. His feet and fingers are numb, but he starts the fire. He remembers the old-timer from Sulphur Creek who had warned him that no man should travel in the Klondike alone when the temperature was fifty degrees below zero. The man unties his icy moccasins, but before he can cut the frozen strings on them, clumps of snow from the spruce tree above fall down and snuff out the fire. Though building a fire in the open would have been wiser, it had been easier for the man to take twigs from the spruce tree and drop them directly below on to the fire. Each time he pulled a twig, he had slightly agitated the tree until, at this point, a bough high up had capsized its load of snow. It capsized lower boughs in turn until a small avalanche had blotted out the fire. The man is...
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...Some theodicies insist that evil stems from human misconducts and deviations from God's law. The examples of this kind of theodicy would be the Original Sin theodicy (evil comes forth unto the world from mankind's original sin), the Reincarnation theodicy (people suffers because of their previous life's mistakes/misdeeds), and finally the famous Augustinian theodicy from Augustine which states that evil is actually caused by the corruption of goodness (seen first from Adam and Eve's disobedience). As the nature of sin passes from Adam and Eve to their descendants, evil exists as the active form of humanity's sinful nature. Natural evil, on the other hand, exists because the world is corrupted by mankind's own corruptive actions. It also serves as the punishment for humanity's moral...
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...Free Will and Determinism- is it an Illusion? Determinism, libertarianism and compatibilism are three significantly different views on where unaccountability might stop and where free will and moral responsibility begin. Determinism is the strict opinion that every action and decision is the cause of an event, genetics or the environment prior to that action. Quite the opposite is libertarianism, which happens to be the genuine belief in free will as well as the denial of universal causation. Finally, deep self-compatibilism meshes both of these stand points together and introduces the idea that one’s action can be free if it stems purely out of personal, authentic desire. Since all three judgments have a backbone of convincing arguments, it is difficult to live by just one. Studying the Satyr’s justification, Hench’s ever-changing attitude toward his creation, and Michael Gorr’s point if view on the matter, one way of thinking may become more rational than the others. Silenus the Satyr is a strange creature, half man, half goat who was brought to life in a laboratory by a man named Hench. Near the end of this fiction, Silenus is sold to slavery in an environment lacking both booze and women after he acts on a desire to have sex with a woman without her consent. The Satyr repeatedly uses his hard determinist point of view to convince Hench that everything that happens has a reason, and if something is caused it cannot be free. Therefore, the Satyr has neither free will...
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...predestination is true, then how is there free will? In order to answer that question, I will attempt to perform a comparative analysis that reflects the difference between predestination and freedom. Moreover, I will provide an example of each and reflect how these theories are applicable for today's society. According to Thiroux and Krasemann (2012), predestined is, “A religious version of determinism that states essentially that because God knows all, He has also foreordained everything to happen the way it has from the beginning. Human beings are completely determined by a supernatural power.” Does this mean that human beings cannot make any choices since everything has been predestined, programmed, “predetermined” by God almighty? If, for example, He has decided that I will live in poverty for my entire life, then I would live in poverty; despite my college education and efforts. This would mean that I have absolutely no say in the matter because I am predestined by a supernatural being. The theory of predestination was most strongly presented by the Protestant minister and theologian John Calvin (1509-1564), who said that individuals can do nothing to ensure their own salvation (Thiroux & Krasemann, 92). I have a problem with this theory. Because there is no proof that there is such a being and He created the world and is undeniably all-powerful and all-knowing (Thiroux & Krasemann, 12). Some people believe that humans have the “free will” to choose their actions...
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...Maddie Kaipare Ms. Gladfelter Comp II Comp II 10/07/2014 Freewill In the plays ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ and ‘Antigone’ social injustice plays a recurring role in the lives of Antigone and the Younger Family. For Antigone, freedom of free will is ripped from her while the Younger family, even though they have free will, do not seem to make use of it. Freedom and control are the two elements evident in these two plays. Antigone tries relentlessly to procure hers by standing up for what she believes is right, while the Younger family holds on to the past letting it dictate their freedom and control both the present and future. Some might say that Antigone was stubborn and foolish for not letting go of her beliefs but she was portraying her free will and freedom to do what she thought was right. A perfect example of this was when Creon asked her if she was the one who committed the ‘crime/burial, “Do you deny you did this, yes or no?” “Antigone replies, I did it. I don’t deny a thing” (Antigone- 1322). She had the courage, guts, and tenacity to exercise her own discretion and did not fear adversity. The Youngers, on the other hand, are quite the opposite. Although they had the right of freewill and control, they never seemed to take any chances to live for the future but rather let the past undermine what was present and ahead. Mama, seems to be living by rules that her dead husband had set forth and cannot seem to break away from them. For example when Ruth says “Now what...
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...didn't have a clue Then out of the blue God gave me you to show me what's real There's more to life than just how I feel And all that I'm worth is right before my eyes And all that I live for though I didn't know why Now I do, 'cause God gave me you For all the times I wore my self pity like a favorite shirt All wrapped up in that hurt For every glass I saw, I saw half empty Now it overflows like a river through my soul From every doubt I had, I'm finally free I truly believe God gave me you to show me what's real There's more to life than just how I feel And all that I'm worth is right before my eyes And all that I live for though I didn't know why Now I do, 'cause God gave me you In your arms I'm someone new With ever tender kiss from you Oh must confess I've been blessed God gave me you to show me what's real There's more to life than just how I feel And all that I'm worth is right before my eyes And all that I live for though I didn't know why (didn't know why) Now I do (I finally do), 'cause God gave me you (God gave me You) God gave me...
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...Culture Alert “The Adjustment Bureau” leaves its audience entertained, however it also gives them something of great significance to discuss and think about. The movie broadly addresses concepts of predestination, free-will, and to what some would view as God. Although “The Adjustment Bureau” does not reflect a biblically view of God and his nature, however the movie does a nice job of demonstrating the importance of these issues. Throughout this paper I will explore the worldviews in correlation with Ravi Zacharias’ components presented in this film, and discuss my views and opinions on the issues portrayed. Having a consistent worldview can often be challenging with the different influences in life, therefore seeing a consistent worldview in a movie can be difficult. “The Adjustment Bureau” relates to “free-will” concept that philosophers have debated for years. David, the main character, is a politician running for Senate. His campaign is going really well until a photo from college is leaked to the media of him. David also meets a woman, Elise, and immediately falls in love. Elise inspires him in many ways and he even gives a very impressing speech. David soon realizes that his choices are not his own and the direction of his life is not under his control after he tries to start a relationship with Elise. His life direction is decided by a higher power. David actually accidently sees a mysterious group of men, “the adjustment bureau”, performing mind manipulation on...
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...Avery Suazo Free Will VS. Determinism Though it can be loosely traced back to modern arguments, which mainly revolve around religion, free will versus determinism has been a staple of debate for over a millennia. The side of free will argues that there is nothing inhibiting us, as humans, from making the choices we choose to make. I think that determinism, the other side of the argument, is incredibly vague and ambiguous; while free will is much more viable in every way. First, I will articulate the definitions and intricacies of both ideas; then, I will elaborate as to why free will is the winning choice in this debate; and finally, I will conclude with my final thoughts. Let’s start off with free will. The theory states that it is the ability to choose without constraint from any outside source of interference (e.g. social pressures, religion, law). By this theory, one can assume that any action is done by the will of the individual, which in turn proves that every action done has a sole agent responsible for said action. For example: Tommy goes to the store, he buys bananas. His mom calls and asks him to pick up some juice while he’s there. Note that Tommy may be naturally inclined to fulfill his mom’s request, but in no way is he out of control what choice he makes. Notice: inclined. He would likely choose to buy the juice as well as his bananas, because he is a good son and doesn’t mind spending the money for juice. He could also completely ignore what his mom says...
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...everything in the future is predictable and that past happenings, in principle, are explicable. Compatibilists, also known as soft determinists describe freedom as a free act that involves no compellation, coercion, restriction or force. Also, determinists define freedom as an act performed on the basis or from an individual’s personal conscious and rational desires and wanted. The determinism assumption presents a complex issue for the free will concept. Some arising questions include how one can make free choices if the laws of nature and the facts of the past determine their actions. Also, how can one be accountable for their performances if they possess no free will? Nonetheless, these reasonable questions are not enough to suggest the falsehood of determinism; instead, they perform as an active stimulator towards providing resolutions to the perceptible conflict between free will and determinism. Lucas indicates how various philosophers including Daniel Dennett argue the subsistence of moral responsibility includes the existence of freedom (3). Iredale adds that most individuals who are not scientists or philosophers appear to have an instinctive feeling that they have free will. Hence, when subjected to this predicament, these people prefer choosing free will over determinism (13). Clarke & Capes define free will as having what it...
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...omnipotent and omnibenevolent then why does evil exist (Sherry)? The problem of evil causes us to look at the traditional characteristics of God and to analytically assess our suppositions about evil itself. If our God is a good, all powerful and just God as many people believe, then why would such a God allow evil to exist? This problem also brings to light questions about what is considered to be evil, whether it is moral evil committed by man or natural evil such as earthquakes, hurricanes and famine (Sherry). There are several arguments that have developed in reaction to the problem of evil that was suggested by David Hume. One such argument which is known as the free will defense claims that evil is solely caused by human beings, who must have the opportunity to choose to do evil if they are to have free will (Sherry). Another argument which was proposed by Richard Swinburne where he claims that natural evil can exist as a means for humans to learn, mature and adapt (Sherry). These theological arguments often include appeals for belief in life after death by not only resisting the urge to do evil deeds will bring rewards in the afterlife but...
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