The Biological Factors Of Free Will And Determinism

When looking at a person’s life, there are many factors to consider, social strains, biology, free will, and up-bringing to name a few. Each of them is very important, but today I will e discussing the biological factors, and the free will. Free will is the ultimate or final decider of one’s life path, and although factors of determinism might give one their foundation or starting point, free will takes you the rest of the way. That being said, it is important to remember that free will and determinism are not mutually exclusive. When one evaluates each position in its purest form it is easy to see their strength and weakness. Pure determinism, biology, genetic, the nature in the nature-nurture debate, is the more palatable theory for many intellectuals because it is physical. Scientist can actually compare brain sizes and genetic markers, for example. There are those that will not

“Man is the decider of his own fate.” Pulling one’s self up by one’s boot straps is a phrase that evolved from the concept that a person can choose and those choices are the greatest factor in what determines the outcome of that person’s life. And to a great extent this is true, but like pure determinism, pure free will does not consider all the possibilities of causation. For example, a man is an alcoholic. It is too simple to say that he is an alcoholic because he chooses not to quit drinking. Perhaps his father and grandfather were both drunks, or he drinks because his significate other drinks. Maybe he drinks as self-medication for a psychological disorder because the alcohol is cheaper than the actual meds. Biological, social, psychological, or even economic factors could be having an effect on his addiction. Neither free will nor determinism is useful to use in their purest forms, because at these polar positions neither theory can account for the fact that both theories have an effect on one’s