Free Will versus Predestination in A Clockwork Orange
Burgess raises the oppositions of free will and predestination in various of his novel, A Clockwork Orange. The author describes his own faith as alternating between residues of Pelagianism and Augustinianism. Pelagianism denies that God has predestined, or pre-ordained, or planned, our lives. A consequence of this is that salvation is effectively within human power (as God hasn't set it down for each of us, it's within our control), which eventually leads to a denial of original sin. Refutation of this eventually came from Augustine, who (a) fiercely upheld the doctrine of original sin, and (b) defended the orthodox doctrine of predestination from the implicit paradox with free choice of salvation (ie., while God has created us, and effectively writes the whole story of each of our lives, the ultimate choice between accepting or rejecting his salvation is ours) with a claim that yes, our nature is laid down when he creates us, but he effectively looks the other way (a "left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing" scenario) when it comes to that ultimate decision, so that the decision of salvation (though not the absolute power over it that Pelagius described) is ours. Or, at least, that's how Burgess saw it.
In the history of the church the classic controversy concerning the nature of the Fall and its effects is that waged by Augustine at the beginning of the 5th century against the advocates of the Pelagian heresy. The latter taught that Adam's sin affected only himself and not the human race as a whole, that every individual is born free from sin and capable in his own power of living a sinless life, and that there had even been persons who had succeeded in doing so. The controversy and its implications may be studied with profit in Augustine's anti-Pelagian writings. Pelagianism, with its affirmation of the total ability of man, came to the fore again in the Socinianism of the 16th and 17th centuries, and continues under the guise of modern humaninstic religion. A halfway position is taken by the Roman Catholic Church, which teaches that what man lost through the Fall was a supernatural gift of original righteousness that did not belong properly to his being as man but was something extra added by God (donum superadditum), with the consequence that the Fall left man in his natural state as created (in puris naturalibus): he has suffered a negative rather than a positive evil; deprivation rather than depravation.
Even though the prosecution presented evidence to the court, the only clear-cut hard fact the prosecution had against Anthony was that she failed to file a report for her missing daughter Caylee and that when she finally did a month after her daughter had gone missing, she proceeded to lie profusely to the authorities on the events that took place. The prosecution focused highly on the forensic evidence of decay located in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car. The use of a cadaver dog to search the vehicle led investigators to be able to determine that a decomposing body had been stored in the trunk of the car. The forensics department used an air sampling procedure on the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car, also indicating that human decomposition and traces of chloroform were in-fact present. Multiple witnesses described what they considered to be an overwhelming odor that came from inside the trunk as it where the prosecution believes Caylee’s decomposing body was stowed. Several items of evidence were ruled out to be the source of the odor, as experts were able to rule out the garbage bag and two chlorine containers located in the trunk as the source. The prosecution alleged that Casey Anthony used chloroform to subdue her daughter and then used duct-tape to seal the nose and mouth of Caylee shut, inevitably causing her to suffocate. Based off the
Before reading this book I thought 911 calls and 311 calls were responded every time. But in Eastern District in Baltimore that is not the case. The residents in Eastern district are much different compared to Fargo/ Moorhead area where most calls are responded too. Moskos said that some criminals will call 911 for a shooting in one area so that cops will go there so they can commit a crime in the opposite direction. Now officers in the Eastern district know how to know which calls are fake. Example: if a call comes in for a shooting in one area and that is the only call then it is fake.
The argument of whether humans are pre-determined to turn out how we are and act the way we do or if we are our own decision makers and have the freedom to choose our paths in life is a long-standing controversy. As a psychologist in training and based on my personal beliefs, I do not believe that we truly have this so called free will. It is because of this that I choose to believe that the work of free will by d’Holbach is the most accurate. Although the ideas that Hume and Chisolm present are each strong in their own manner, d’Holbach presents the best and most realistic argument as to how we choose our path; because every event has a cause, we cannot have free will. Not only this, but also, that since there is always an external cause, we can never justify blame. Now let’s review Hume and Chisolm’s arguments and point out why I do not think that they justly describe free will.
Previous generations have a strong belief of keeping work and home life separate; that work is for work and home is for play (Rampell, 2011, para 21). Today’s professionals do not seem to abide by similar beliefs, constantly crossing the borders of one into the other. While many recognize this as an issue that could result in employees being less productive, it has actually resulted in them accepting that their work may run late into the evening or even into the weekend. I agree with this completely in that I grew up being taught that business is business and personal is personal; you leave your home life at the door. But now times have changed, and my weekends are no longer dedicated to my home life, but for work, because I attend classes during the week. Also, in my line of work in the Allied Health industry, it is a requirement to work off hours. Long gone are the days of working nine to five, Monday through Friday; technology and the demand of wanting affairs done and done as soon as possible, has made it so the “work week” is now 24-7. “Jon Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Institute of Politics, said, ‘Some experts also believe that today’s young people are better at quickly switching from one task to another, given their exposure to so many stimuli during their childhood and adolescence’” (Rampbell,
During the Ming and Qing Dynasty, under the circumstance of which the absolute monarchy reached its peak progressively, two trends of thoughts appeared in China:
The purpose of Malcolm’s regale is to share his story, philosophies and lessons learned along the way with the world, not just the colored community. In his view, the colored community is oppressed, uneducated, and in turn must be brought up in this world on level ground with their white counterparts. The cards have been stacked against them for far too long, what with slavery, racism, segregation and bigotry keeping the white man above the colored. By presenting his experiences to the colored community, he hopes to ignite their spirit, and give them the drive to seek equality for themselves. Additionally, he
This act also covers sexual harassment in the workplace. Discrimination disrupt good order and discipline and creates a hostile environment. These actions are considered immoral and as law-abiding citizens, it is our duty to intervene to curtail these types’ actions. Duty theory talks about two approaches, the first imply we all have a catalog of instinctive obligations. The Ten Commandments is a perfect example because it speaks about not killing, committing adultery, covet thy neighbor things and bear false witness. These practices have been adopted by many cultures, which play an important role in their
When the play begins, Romeo chooses to crash the ball. Even before the Capulet ball, Romeo predicts his “untimely death"(1.4,117). Fate did not make him go to the Capulet ball, he decided to go on his own, even though his “mind misgives some consequences”(1.4, 114). Another example of how free will comes to play is when Romeo finds out later on that Juliet his true love is his enemy. A "fear"(1.5.120), is placed in him. Nonetheless, he still continues to pursue the relationship even though he knows it will only end in trouble.
Free will is a right given to us when we are born as human beings. However, depending on different circumstances that right can be easily taken away based on where you live, or the actions that one can do to them. In A Clockwork Orange, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the characters throughout both novels and films have controlled free will because of different circumstances.
In the book The Alchemist, Maktub is an Arab word which has been imparted to Santiago by the crystal merchant at first, then it appears many times and becomes the thread of the whole book. Maktub stands for God's will, or the fate of a person. Some people think that fate is already determined by God and unable to change by humanity, some others consider fate as a lie, it can be changed by some external factor. However, in his book The Alchemist, Paulo states that they are all correct but one-sided because those opinions mess up the definition of "fate". Book of story tells us that the fate of a person is to achieve their personal legend. Therefore, It has been determined as a God's will but people still have their free will to choose to do
We can now establish that foreknowledge and free-will are incompatible due to two factors: The first derives from the idea that having free will is a matter of having a choice about the certainty of our actions, and that having a choice depends on the presence of genuine options. This dilemma is present in Peter Kreeft’s analogy of the story, here the presence of an omniscient author (God) does not allow for true choice if our actions are actually determined by the outcome of the story and not by our own choice. The second factor derives from the idea that the truth and presence of predetermination means that we don’t cause our actions in a significant way and our actions are not ultimately controlled by us. In other words, we lack the ability for self-determination. This dilemma is present in Augustine’s later notion of massa damnata, here God because of our tendency to sin has already predetermined who will be sinners and who will be saved, a controversial notion that only further compounds the fact that foreknowledge and free-will are
Oedipus the King by Sophocles is the story of a man who was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. The story continues in the tradition of classic Greek plays, which were based upon the Greeks’ beliefs at the time. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods decided what would ultimately happen to each and every person. Since those gods destined Oedipus to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus’ life was definitely fated. However, the gods only decided where Oedipus’ life would eventually lead; they never planned the route he would take to get there. All the decisions that Oedipus made in order to fulfill his destiny, and the decisions he made after the fact, were of his own free will, and were largely shaped by his mien.
Amidst a population composed of perfectly conditioned automatons, is a picture of a society that is slowly rotting from within. Alex, the Faustian protagonist of A Clockwork Orange, and a sadistic and depraved gang leader, preys on the weak and the innocent. Although perhaps misguided, his conscientiousness of his evil nature indicates his capacity to understand morality and deny its practice. When society attempts to force goodness upon Alex, he becomes the victim. Through his innovative style, manifested by both the use of original language and satirical structure, British author Anthony Burgess presents in his novella A Clockwork Orange, the moral triumph of free will within the controlling hands of a totalitarian society.
Choices made by Hamlet, which ultimately lead to his death, are all guided by his own free will. In mourning his father's death, Hamlet chooses to do so for what others consider to be an excessive amount of time. “But to persever/ In obstinate condolement is a course/ Of impious stubbornness”(I.ii.99-100), according to Claudius. During this period of mourning, Hamlet meets his father’s spirit and promises to avenge his father’s death. However, upon reflection, he questions the validity of the ghost’s message. At this point he carefully goes about choosing a plan of action that will inevitably show that “the king is to blame” (V.ii.340) In following his plan, Hamlet freely chooses to kill Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Ophelia, Laertes, Claudius and himself.
In the novel A Clockwork Orange, the author Anthony Burgess tells a story about a young man name Alex and his friends, every night they go around and start committing violent acts. In the novel Alex expresses his freedom of choice between good and evil. The freedom of choice is a decision that every person must make throughout his life in order to guide his actions and to take control of his own future. This Freedom of Choice, no matter what the outcome is, displays person power as an individual, and any efforts to control or influence this choice between good and evil will take way the person free will and enslave him. In this novel the author uses this symbolism through imagery. He shows that through the character of Alex, and the first person narrative point of view to prove that without the ability to choose between good and evil person becomes a slave.