...speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom though is taken for granted by many and greatly overlooked by others, is a way of life that most individuals fail to think of. The idea of freedom, which has been fought for by our forefathers decades in the past, means less today than it did in years past. Most individuals today cannot define freedom without having to give a second thought. Freedom is that which we have struggled for and that which we have inherited for our future generations. The nation’s flag flown high above all other flags, displays freedom that which was fought for. Freedom that our society can be proud of. Our Soldier's, past, present and future have secured that freedom so that we are able to enjoy the niceties of this great nation. Freedom which we undervalue at times in this nation would be a lifetime of renewed change in countries that are facing uphill battles of oppression. Freedom is being able to do as we please, to enjoy the opportunities without being placed on restrictions. There is a part of our society whom have lost one of the most valuable things to them: their freedom....
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...not responsible for our evil actions because all our actions are determined by prior causes this is known as hard determinism. Take a murderer for instance, hard determinists would argue it was determined that the murderer would kill and he had no choice in doing otherwise. However an issue with this approach is that hard determinism is stating that no-one can be held morally responsible for evil actions because they had no choice in deciding otherwise. This means people could potentially get away with the most cold- blooded crimes and fear no sense of retribution. Although I recognise if the world was determined noone would be held responsible for their evil actions, this would however still make the world become a very chaotic immoral world. If determinism was true then this means all the horrible things that happen in the world had to happen, this is a very pessimistic view of the world. Furthermore if everything was determined it would make some people question what is the purpose of life, if we ultimately have no free will. Therefore some may use this point to argue that everything can’t be determined. Furthermore others may argue by accepting responsibility for our evil actions and wrong doings we can become better people and learn from our mistakes however if no one is being held responsible for their evil actions, this would make some people question the kind of world we would be living in. Additionally others may also argue in the same way an individual would wish to be...
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...Free will and predestination has been debated for centuries and is a key component in the play Macbeth. Written by Shakespeare, Macbeth is the protagonist in Macbeth who strives to become king after hearing of the witches prophecy. Having free will, Macbeth’s life is not predetermined, as he has active control over his actions, choices, and his fate. Macbeth often questions in his own free will due to many of the witches prophecies, which always seem to be true. Macbeth, taking the prophecies as fate, is influenced into killing many of the people close to him and eventually leads to his death. The world seemly lacking free will, the witches appear to see fate. The first lines of the play they state”When shall we three meet again?/ In thunder,...
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... The Truth behind Free Will: Luther vs. Erasmus The notion of free will is one of the most complex notions to define and to understand; it is defined differently according to one’s interpretation of the scriptures, especially the Bible. Both Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus, influenced by their faith and beliefs, write respectively against and for free will. Both try to adequately answer the questions: Does man have free will? If yes, why and how? If not, how? Possible answers to these questions given by both authors and some scholars who write against or for each one of these opponents’ arguments highlight, especially, the differences in the conception of man’s free will. Luther and his supporters view free will as an imaginary or impossible and dangerous thing to have; Erasmus and his supporters defend that the existence of man’s free will is irrefutable for it is in human nature itself as the Bible says it. In spite of some of Luther’s good ideas that prove man’s absence of free will and Erasmus’ excellent interpretation of the Bible, neither of them fully responds to the human yearning of knowing the concept of free will. After a thorough and wise analysis of the defense and abnegation of man’s free will of these authors, I find it impossible to fully deny or prove the existence of man’s free will. It is important to take into account Luther’s argument and Erasmus’ before making a decision about the concept of free will. First of all, we...
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...Prof. Kellenberger Phil 310 Free Will When grumpy old Scrooge of the famous movie A Christmas Carol went home on Christmas eve, he had no idea what awaited him. He experienced a night of anguish and terror after three ghosts visit him. Scrooge was a grumpy mean-spirited man after the death of his sister Fan. Just to prepare him for his “life” in death, his dead partner and friend Marley, who facilitates the entire nightmare, shows him the lost lonely spirits who were mean-spirited in their earthly lives. The first ghost who visited him that night was “the ghost of Christmas past”. This ghost serves to remind him how others had been kind to him during past Christmases in his youth and how people in his past embodied the Christmas spirit. This ghost served to instill guilt and remorse. Next, “the ghost of Christmas present” appears to Scrooge and shows him how everyone is enjoying Christmas and spreading the Christmas spirit around town. It also shows how his servant Bob, despite his meager earnings enjoys Christmas with his family. It also shows Scrooge his nephew Fred enjoying Christmas with his family. The two families only show downcast moods when discussing Scrooge. However, Fred maintains hope that his uncle Scrooge can change. After that, the most dreary “ghost of Christmas yet to come” appears to Scrooge. He shows Scrooge how Bob’s son death saddens everyone and leaves them feeling a sense of loss. He then shows him a rich dead man who nobody misses and some...
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...The Free Video Game Affect Brandon Washabaugh Wiregrass Technical College INTRODUCTION The basic economic problem is scarcity because human wants are unlimited and resources are limited (Holt, 2012). To help with this unlimited want humans invented video games to satisfy longing real life cannot. Think about it, in real life are you able to race a multi-million race car around Daytona, or fight in the Gulf War, land an F-18 Super Hornet on the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, or even fly a space craft all over the galaxy? Video games have become a way to escape from reality. This industry is making millions of dollars in America alone. In looking at the problems the United States has been having with its economy, video game manufacturers are doing what they can to stay competitive. There is a new trend in that more and more video game companies are releasing free-to-play games that are just as good if not better than paid games. How does this new trend affect the economy, as well as corporation and indie game companies? EXLANATIONS An explanation of various words and terms this paper will be using is necessary. First is Corporation: A Corporation is when you have more than one company to create a game. For example Call of Duty: Ghosts; this game is developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. Second is Indie: Indie is a type of game where the creator is also the publisher. Usually this means they are of lesser quality and are funded by donations for their...
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...Assess Whether Sartre Was right To Claim That Man Is Completely Free Although Soren Kierkegaard is known as the godfather of existentialism, Jean Paul Sartre was a French philosopher who popularised it. This essay will look at his claim that man is completely free and try to draw a conclusion on whether he was right, wrong or maybe even a middle ground to this assertion. To understand his claim that man is completely free, it will be necessary to look at what existentialism is and what it says about the notion of freedom. According to Sartre we are condemned to be free because we are ontological beings (Sartre, 1973 p.29-30) Sartre described humans as a being-for-itself because they have an awareness of themselves, their existence and are able to change by manipulating different factors and making decisions that suit them. He then went on to describe innate objects as a being-in-itself meaning they have no consciousness, and cannot change; they cannot manipulate the environment for better or worse (Bochensky, 1974, p.175) Sartre stated that existence precedes essence. By this he meant that we exist first and only after that occurs do we start making sense of the world and ourselves. This view is an atheistic approach to existentialism because he believed that God does not exist, but Christian existentialists like Kierkegaard and Heidegger would disagree with this approach. According to Sartre we are born tabular rasa and thrown into existence without our will. By arguing that...
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...will be looking at God's omnipotence, through the Stone Paradox, his omniscience, through the Free Will Paradox and Gods 'omniscience and immutability' and showing how they are not comprehensible. Firstly, The Paradox of the Stone tests God's omnipotence. The dilemma is that either God can create a stone which He cannot lift, or He cannot create a stone which He cannot lift. If God can create a stone which He cannot lift, then He is not omnipotent (as He cannot lift the Stone). If God cannot create a stone which He cannot lift, then He is not omnipotent (since He cannot create the stone). Consequently, either way God is not omnipotent as there is something He cannot do. The first objection to the Stone Paradox is from George Mavrodes. He argues that the paradox is logically impossible. The claim that someone, x, can make something too heavy for x to lift is not generally self-contradictory. However, it becomes self-contradictory when x is omnipotent. An omnipotent being that cannot lift a stone is logically impossible because it is self-contradictory and describes nothing. Hence, there is no possible power for an omnipotent being to create a stone they cannot lift. So if God is omnipotent, and cannot create or lift a stone then He doesn't lack any possible power. Mavrodes comes up with another explanation: If God can lift any stone, but cannot create one He can't lift, then that means there is no limit to His power of lifting stones and also no limit on God's power of creating...
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...that every event in this world has been caused by events that preceded it. This would mean that we really have no control as to what happens in our lives. Free will, however, is also supposed to be our right. We should be able to choose what will happen if we make certain choices. So how is Gods omniscience compatible with the existence of free will? God has the foreknowledge to know what is going to happen to each and every one of us. He knows the events that will occur around the world that will affect our lives. This knowledge however does not constitute that we don’t have free will. If you look at individuals, we can make the choice to do one thing or another. Just because a greater power knows what the choice will be, doesn’t mean we cannot choose what we are going to do. Our daily choices can be chosen by us, but are known already by God. He knows that we will choose for example to call in sick to work, that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t have went to work, that choice was determined by us. We could have changed that, but God just knew that was going to be the outcome. If God has foreknowledge of the outcome of all events, then how could we possibly have free will. It seems that if determinism is a proven fact, then we can make any choice, but the outcomes are always predetermined by past events that are out of our control, so free will really doesn’t exist, people just think it does. People think that they are making the choices but in actuality they are not making...
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...More Education, More Freedom Several people have different views towards what is the relationship between education and individual freedom. In recent discussions of freedom, when talking about slavery and freedom, most people will tend to say that freedom means that to be free, without an owner, telling them what to do, or what to wear, or what to do, and what they are worth. In the same discussions, some believe that education means to have the knowledge to do anything a human being is capable of possibly accomplishing. The relationship between education and individual freedom has tend to become a controversial issue due to the amount of decades it has been around, and many other reasons. The main reason why education and individual freedom has become controversial is because of the accessibility that people have towards the two. Some people don’t have access to the two due to the economic shortages of their location, and many other because of the living conditions they are in. In Frederick Douglass’s, “The Narrative Of The Life Of Fredrick Douglass An American Slave”, Douglass believes that with out the proper education a person does not have complete freedom. Just as Douglass believes, Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “The Purpose of Education”, emphasizes mainly on how he believes that with out the proper education, a person can not be completely free because a person needs to be able to use his or her education in the proper manner. Both education and freedom are related to each...
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...planet and then destroy it just as quickly? What are the characteristics of this God? Is this God worthy of our worship? How does God allow for such evil? John Hicks: Father Tom, it seems like you have come across the problem of evil. Sarah: What do you mean of the problem of evil? Is evil not a consequence of the devil? A fallen angel who wants all of God’s followers to turn to him instead? The Devil: Yes, Sarah you are correct. I am the source of all evil; the one who causes the pain and suffering in the world today. JH: Sarah, do not listen to him. He is not as powerful as God. His power is not enough to cause all of the evil on the world. S: Then what is the “problem of evil”? JH: God is known as all powerful, all knowing, all good. If God exists, and if he is all powerful then he is able to change and eliminate evil. If God is all knowing then he has full knowledge of all evil that occurs in the world. If he is all good then he wants to create a freedom from evil. But, evil exists. So, if evil exists then God isn’t all powerful, all knowing and/or all good, or God does not exist. FT: Without God, there would be no problem of evil. God created all things, so God created evil; natural and moral. S: What do you mean by natural and moral evil? Are their different types of evil? JH: Moral evil is a wickedness that is one person inflicting evil onto another person or onto one self. FT: God created people so that means he indirectly is responsible for the creation...
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...obligations, the concept of liberty implies potential obligations. The word freedom ignores interactions with other humans, the word liberty acknowledges those interactions. The word liberty describes specific freedoms of action without obligations toward others , but recognizes that obligations might exist. The concept of boundaries introduces obligations toward other people. The concept of freedom implies unrestricted movement and actions regardless of boundaries, but the concept of liberty imply restrictions on actions because of boundaries . There is another word that describes the concepts of liberty and freedom. Anarchy. ANARCHY The “A” word is currently used by many people to imply unlimited boundaries, chaos, and disorder. But, what exactly...
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...pregnant woman who does not wish to bear a child violates the principle that one must always treat other human beings as an ends, never only as a means. By refusing abortion, the pregnant woman would be treated as a means, and even if the fetus were considered human, it would be treated as a means as well. Denying access to abortion treats the pregnant woman as a means. Many arguments against abortion involve a concern for protecting the rights of the fetus. But by prohibiting the pregnant woman from having an abortion, she is being treated as a means by which to bring another human being into existence. Telling her that she has no choice but to have the baby is essentially treating her as a vessel by which a life is to be born out of, rather than a human being with the right to decide whether or not she should bring a new life into the world. Callahan discussed how embryonic life can only exist from a woman’s participation in the genetic inheritance of the human species as a whole (1. Callahan, Reader, pg. 17). In other words, the woman’s baby is her contribution to the genetic inheritance of the human species as a whole. Callahan would argue that in having the baby regardless of whether she wanted it or not, she is acting according to the categorical imperative in that she is acting for humankind and not in anticipation of her own well-being or cost-benefit (2. Callahan, Reader, pg. 17). However, according to Kant, if an action is good only as a means to something in...
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...frame. The fact is, civil disobediance is not only positive in a free society, but neccessary. In addition, the idea of restricting civil disobedience is near to fascism. The ideology that the people not be allowed to peacefully protest or disobey certain sets of rules put in place is too restrictive in a country claiming to be the land of the free. We the people did not sign up to live in a country that gets to choose what our opinions look like to the rest of the world....
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...ARGUMENTS AGAINST DETERMINISM: MAN IS FREE, NO MORE, NO LESS INTRODUCTION The issues of Freedom and Determinism have been sensitive issues that have sparked off heated debates throughout history. The question whether man is really free has been a hard nut to crack and as a result of this, many attempts have been made by different individuals from both philosophical and theological point of view in their effort to explain and understand this concept ‘Freedom’. The line of thought that supports the notion of free will is also called libertarianism. DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS Before delving into the argument, it is worthy of note that the terms under discussion be given a definition for a better understanding of the terms. According to Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, determinism is the belief that people are not free to choose what they are like or how they behave because these things are decided by their background, surroundings and other things over which they have no control. It is simply the view that man is not free, that his actions are determined by certain causes. On another note, libertarianism according to the same source is the belief that people should have the freedom to do and think as they like. Freedom is simply man’s capacity to take hand in his own development. Concentrating more on the major object of my argument which is against determinism, the concept freedom was supported by both philosophers and theologians throughout history. On the part of the philosophers...
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