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Character traits strengths and weaknesses
Character traits strengths and weaknesses
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Frankfurt had two thesis. The first one was that you can only be a person if you have second order desires. The secondary thesis was that a person has free will only if they can change their actions into anything they desire. In the article Frankfurt first starts off by answer the question what does it mean to be human. He answers this simply by stating that us humans have the ability to have second order desires. Second order desires are the actions that you want to happen. So first order desires lead to actions such as eating or sleeping. Second order desires are what you want your first order desire to be. For instance if you are eating too much and want to cut back on the food you eat that would be a second order desire. Frankfurt also states that …show more content…
Frankfurt then designate human characteristics that would make you not a person and calls them Wontons. Frankfurt states that if you are a Wanton you can not be a person. A Wanton has the characteristics of : doesn't care bout his will, desires move him in either direction without him being concerned, and they don’t follow their strongest desires. He states that young children and even some adults are Wontons. Frankfurt then gives an example of two types of drug addicts to support his claim. He states that a unwilling drug addict will have conflicts about whether or not he wants to do drugs again but his second order desire is to quit doing drugs. Either way though his will is satisfied because whichever option wins becomes his will even though deep down he may not want it. The Wanton drug addict could care less if he stopped taking drugs or continue to take them thus he does not have will because there is nothing he really desires. Since he doesn’t have will he is not a person yet. Frankfurt next thesis states that free will is the ability to change your actions without negative
...ow moral responsibility. One needs to will other alternate possibilities, knowing that there is no moral responsibility for them, to show that the original will has moral responsibility. It is like placing a white stone on a pile of black stones to emphasize the fact that that one stone is a white stone. This shows the need for alternate possibilities and strengthens Frankfurt’s argument.
The Weimer Republic, is the democratic government established in Germany in 1918 that ruled for fifteen years after the collapse of the German empire after the First World War.The republic consisted of moderates from the Social Democratic Party as well as their liberal allies, which included the German Democratic Party, and the Catholic Center Party. The Weimer Republic sought political democracy, which they believed was attainable by the elimination of war, revolutionary terror, and capitalism. Despite their clear goal, the Weimer Republic faced backlash by the radicals of society, which included communists, National Socialists, and the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler. THESIS: The Weimer Republic’s instability in the period of 1918-1933 is
Thesis: The central conflict behind free will is determining whether or not it humans have the freedom of
...pulated. Brainwashing is analogous to forces beyond our control. Frankfurt’s theory still holds, since we do not concern the origin of Sam’s second order desire. When he has a free will, it implies that he acts freely by selling out his company. In fact, Frankfurt seems to weaken the theory of determinism. If some external forces causally determine Sam’s the second order desire, then Sam cannot have desired otherwise. That is to say, he cannot have two versions of second order desire, neither of which allows him to have freedom of will or freedom of action. That is, Frankfurt’s theory leads to a totally different conclusion when Frankfurtean compatibilism does not agree with determinism.
He states, “A person may well be morally responsible for what he has done even though he could not have done otherwise”. Frankfurt defends the idea that one must be morally responsible in some sense rather than just blaming the past, in a rather pessimistic manner. He also suggests that you are not responsible if you could not have avoided the situation and decision that you made. In Harris’s case, Frankfurt would say that Harris could be held responsible for his actions even though there is a possibility that Harris could not have acted otherwise. In P.F. Strawson’s essay “Freedom and Resentment”, he states, “This is that the notions of moral guilt, of blame, of moral responsibility are inherently confused and that we can see this to be so if we consider the consequences either of the truth of determinism or of its falsity” (72). Whether or not you one has the ability to control their actions, they still have the freedom to express feelings and emotions subsequent to their determined actions. We experience consequences in regards to our actions and most would even say morally
...it is said, He can’t handle his money. If we are biologically predisposed to alcoholism we are an alcoholic. It is not a far reach to say people are biologically determined to make wrong decisions. People in the cases know what the right thing to do is; they choose to do something else.
Free-will, the ability one has to act without the constraint of necessity or fate. It the power a person has to act at one’s discretion. Do we really have the freedom to experience what we want, when we choose? Some would say yes while some others will say no, philosophers have argued about this topic and there hasn’t been any particular conclusion yet. It is the ability a person or animal has to choose his or her course of actions. Although most philosophers suppose that the concept of free-will is very closely connected to the concept of moral responsibility.
Enlightenment is, in the much cited definition given by Kant in 1799, people’s inability to think for themselves due not to lack of intellect, but lack of courage. The Oxford English Dictionary defines enlightenment as “A European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition.” Enlightenment is broadly considered to have occurred in the period between 1650 and 1800, and was followed by the Romantic period. The age marked a move among the population towards rational and reasoned thinking and saw the abolishment of persecutions of witchcraft and an increase in religious tolerance across the realms of Austria and Prussia, which were at that time ruled by the Habsburg and Hohenzollern Dynasties,
The distinction between second order desires and second order volitions can be difficult to grasp, but I shall present my best interpretations of Frankfurt’s readings. Second order volitions are judgements that we make about our desires. One last time, suppose person A is on a diet so he admits a firm resolution about his diet. So he thinks (I should want X) or (I should want to not X). Person A thinks he should want to not eat dessert in his new diet resolution. In saying this, person A is placing a valued judgement about his desires. He is someone who is not just letting his desires pull him one way or another. He is placing a valued and examined judgement about which one of his desires is the desire he wants to constitute his will. In saying “I should want to not eat dessert”, he is saying that there is an important sense in which wanting to not eat dessert more accurately characterizes who he stands for and what his values
Welfare is a great incentive program to help the ones in need, to maintain basic human needs. Over time people have started to misuse the system. The program is created for the ones who worked really hard or can't work because of any physical or mental challenge. Many Americans on Welfare today, don't want to work, and collect free money from the government. The homeless that are on the streets deserve it more than anyone. Our country is aware, but we are not taking action, we need to step up and end this immorality. Welfare should be reformed, because many people are abusing it, its putting our government in debt, and giving away tax money from paychecks of the ones who work. However, Welfare is great for the ones who work hard, and still have a hard time supporting their families.
Victor Frankenstein is not the only person who has had an ambition. People who are not scientist also have ambitions. Some ambitions could be to become very rich, be elected into office, enter a certain university, etc. These ambitions are very difficult to attain. But if people really want to meet their goal, they will not stop until this is meet. For example, a politician who wants to be elected will do anything on his power to get voters to vote for him/her. This may require for him/her to spend a lot of money on the campaign. Another example is a student who wants to enter a certain university. This student will try to me...
Freud’s theory of psychological egoism also says we have the ability to make decisions, though our thought process is what ultimately restricts us. The id, which we all possess, is our most primal wants and desires, yet we don 't necessarily act on what the id tells us to act on. Our ego and super ego, helps us to differentiate between right and wrong. We choose to listen to this part of our mind that tells us our actions have consequences and stealing is wrong. One could easily do these things anyway if they wanted, choosing to ignore their
Supporters of the “choice theory” support that there is no theoretical obstacle to acknowledging the fact that thoughts, desires, values and other mental phenomena can dominate bodily functions. There is no correlation between continual bar pressing during intracranial self-stimulation and increased dopaminergic neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbensour results are consistent with evidence that the dopaminergic component is not associated with the hedonistic or pleasure aspects of rewards. (Schaler 2002) In other words, there is no empirical evidence that supports the claims that the chemical rewards have no power to compel. For instance, I am rewarded when I eat a delicious chocolate pastry, but I often choose not to this because I feel it will hurt my weight. Same applies to people with alcohol and drug abuse problems. The mere ability of an addict to understand the damages they do by using drug and alcohol such as the damaging of personal relationships, loss of job, legal issues, etc. results in the ability for that person to rationalize that addiction results in consequences. Gene Heyman, the author of “Addiction: A Disorder of Choice” explains in an interview that when you look at other diseases such as schizophrenia you can not reason with the patient stating that it is not socially acceptable to have hallucinations or outbursts, that will not affect the patient at all, but when you look at addiction the social factors are the key reasons why people choose to stop. (Heyman 2009) Overall, addiction is activities that influenced by costs and
Ever thought about who controls the decisions you make regarding your daily activities? You may think you control every aspect of your life, but some philosophers have questioned such notions. Many schools of thought explain the analogy of free will, and they present the argument of whether we have the freedom to act or other causes and effects determine our destiny. Free will in this context is defined as the freedom to choose and act where there several alternative courses of action. Theologically, the concept of free will is presented as the power to make decisions on our own without necessarily been influenced by external or predetermined courses.
Before unification in 1871, Germany was simply a group of many small states that all spoke German and shared many things in common. However, many people tried but were not successful in bringing them together to create a single state. It was not until Otto von Bismarck's personal obsession to build a united empire at any material or human cost made it happen. The great loss of life and the inflexible goal became known as his "blood and iron" policy, finally pulling those many small states together to create one large and very powerful German nation. The blood is that of the soldiers spilled in all the wars that Bismarck's army had fought to conquer the neighboring countries in order to unify Germany. The iron stood for the strength of his leadership, because iron is hard, resistant and very strong. Bismarck was a very strong leader and he did not let anything or anyone get in his way. Also, iron represented all the weapons of the used by the soldiers that fought in the wars. Bismarck's ideal to create a unified and larger Germany was put into effect by forming an army and going to war against its neighbors, such as Denmark, Austria and France. Otto von Bismarck's personal goal of creating a German empire, and his method of overcoming any political obstacle in his way, together with his powerful policy of "blood and iron," helped lead up to the unification of Germany.