The Reality of the Future: Probabilistic Potentialities
How can time be unreal if humans can both perceive and conceive of it? Does time exist outside of human minds at all? If time is singularly linear, that is, there is only one future, what’s the purpose of any human action? Contemplating the nature of the future often leads to ostensible paradoxes. To Aristotle, the future only existed potentially, not actually, because it was impossible to determine true and false statements about the future. To St. Augustine, neither the future nor the past was real because everything could only be perceived in the present time. I believe that there are many possibilities for the future, and all of them are simultaneously real until one becomes the present. Those multiple possibilities are what make freedom and responsibility real and relevant, because individuals can influence the likelihood of each potential outcome. How can multiple futures be real? Aristotle says, “the predicate cannot both belong and not belong to the subject at one and the same time with regard to the future” (Paragraph 2). His solution to this was that the
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Even if the future is predetermined for us, it makes no difference, because we won’t know what that predetermined path is. It won’t be “true” freedom, but the belief in true freedom is what’s important. The fact that people think they have a responsibility to influence good outcomes is what keeps society functioning. And yes, it could be a lot better, but it could also be significantly worse. If everyone believed in fatalism, then nothing would ever get done and happiness levels would plummet. So regardless of whether there is truly one possible future or many, it’s better to believe in many, both for personal wellbeing and greater
Mencken’s observations are very relevant and it applies to contemporary society. It is necessary to identify what it means by being “free”. Does being free mean that one has choice of religion and type of government? The type of freedom mentioned previously do not apply to mankind if mankind is not safe and is risk for danger. It is human nature to choose safety over freedom as shown in various examples.
For many Westerners, more specifically the driven citizens of the United States of America, time is viewed as a straight line. Our children realize this, consciously or not, early on. They make timelines in school, their classes switch on the hour, their intelligence is measured on a scale. We are born, we come of age during adolescence. We set a goal, we work to achieve success. Birth and death, childhood and adulthood are stages that occur only once. Life is black and white. Separate. The past is the past, the future is the future. Traveling on a straight line, we can only look forwards.
In this essay, I will explore the concept of free will by drawing a correlation to determinism and analyse if free will is dictated for us. I will argue that the future is
Time concept is a complex idea that resist full understanding thus we can only percept it and determinism is a belief that is adopted by whose can percept time better than the others. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim is kidnapped by Tralfamadorians, who are aliens that can see the fourth dimension. While he was explaining the notion of time to Billy, he uses simile “seeing all time as you might see a stretch of Rocky Mountains.”(85). Kurt Vonnegut indicates that what people live in the present is just an allusion of time. He juxtaposes Billy with Tralfamadorians to show this allusion. While Billy only sees in three dimensions, Tralfamadorians can see the fourth dimension as well. And in the mountain example Billy can only see the 3 side of the mountain, whereas Tralfamadorians see 4 side of it, but they all live in an allusion, because time is such an idea that it is made of infinite sides. It is impossible to dispose of this allusion and see the whole perspective. Vonnegut uses the symbolism in order to show that free-will is jus...
John McTaggart in his essay “Time” presents a radical argument that claims time is unreal. While the argument is interesting and has attracted much attention for his arguments, I remain unconvinced of the argument he makes. This paper will lay out McTaggart’s argument that time in unreal, critically analyze why I believe McTaggart’s argument fails and present an alternative idea about time, utilizing aspects of McTaggart’s argument.
Free will, many believe it (free will) is only a fabrication and humans are at the mercy of natural law; determinist theories suggest that humankind is no more than a mere pawn, destined to carry out the grand design the universe has so concretely laid out. Others (Compatibilist), like to think that although, mankind is under universal law, decisions are ultimately made by individuals thus, free will must be real. The Libertarians like to think humanity's fate is left entirely up to the common people and therefore, any action(s) taken are simply choices whether they be admirable or atrocious. In the present day, the question of is free will real still seems like a complex riddle that mankind is destined to ponder for an eternity.
People, when believing they have a choice in their actions, not only act with morality in mind, but also tend to feel content with their lives, while those who believe the opposite are inclined to act in a contrary manner. Something as simple as exposure to fifteen deterministic statements, as done in Vohs’ research, affected the behavior of the people (Vohs 51-52). Society as a whole embracing such ideas could see these changes on an exponential level. Another study concluded that believing in free will correlates with higher belief in meaning in life, and happiness with one’s life, along with greater standards of morality, compared to those who believe they have little to no choice in their actions (Bergner 598). Most people desire a society, and a life for that matter, with happiness and ethics as opposed to a depressed and immoral society, so instituting a widespread belief in determinism reduces progress to this
may be free to choose our own path. The fatal flaw in this argument is that
It is a very daunting question that looms over many Americans. “What does our future hold?” is the frequently asked question. When people are faced with this question, there is a lot of uncertainty. Many people do not know how to answer. Despite what many might think, America 's future is well known across hundreds of nations all over the world. America 's future has actually been a question people have asked since the beginning of this great nation and has a very important meaning in the lives of many. There are many factors that will affect the United States future. These factors include culture and education, economy, resource management, politics, and protection of freedoms. In this paper, I will give each factor a grade in terms on future
...prophecies signals time collapsing upon itself, combining past, present, and future into one ambiguous time in which nothing changes, but merely rotates through. In a sense, this has been happening throughout the book: spirits from the past have materialized and vanished, Pilar Ternera could read the future as well as the past, and the Buendías actions seemingly merge the past, the present, and the future into one. The final moments of Aureliano II represent a version of what’s been happening all along on a miniature scale. Time, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, is not a distinct linear movement of individual occurrences, but rather it is an boundless quantity of movements happening all simultaneously, in which no event can be viewed as unique because it ties back into both the past and the future. It is already occurring, at the same time, somewhere else entirely.
Various views on free will have been developed since then. The three that I will mention in this essay are Libertarianism, Hard Determinism and Compatibilism. Libertarians believe each individual should look to enhance their lives through the use of free will or the freedom of choice. On the contrary, Hard determinism argues that free will is impossible. Proponents of this ideology
Depending upon your definition of the present, it is hard to distinguish when the present time really is. Trying to pinpoint the exact time of “now” seems to be impossible because when we actually finish saying “now” it is already in the past. It is believed by many people that when a human dies for example, they cease to exist. In this essay I will be looking at two key concepts that relate to the topic of existence and the present time. These concepts are ‘Presentism’ and ‘Eternalism’. I will begin the essay by outlining what ‘Eternalism’ is and how its followers may see the present in a different way because of it. From here I will propose some of its weaknesses followed by objections to these weaknesses. The second main concept will be ‘Presentism’ which will be the opposing argument that suggests that things only exist in the present time instead of the past, present and future. After giving this argument, I will also be giving objections and counters to it. I, myself believe that there is a present time and existence, as we I find it difficult to believe that something exists in the same way once it has died and decomposed.
The Theological Challenge to Freedom states that if anyone, in this case God, can literally foresee the future, then it must be already somehow laid out in advance and there’s nothing we can do to alter it. A perfect God can’t be wrong, so if he knows that you’ll go to U of M in the fall, then no matter how much you want to go to Butler, you’re going to be a Wolverine. You don’t have the flexibility, or the freedom, that you otherwise assume you have. God knows all the probabilities of anything we might freely do, but he does not know exactly what we will choose. However, because God created humans with free will, he has to wait, just like we do, to see what will happen. He’s prepared to deal with any option and he can work around our choices to
Are our lives only a set out plan controlled by fate? Do our choices and our actions determine our futures? What is the defining factors that affect the course of our existence on Earth? These are all questions that have afflicted society for centuries. As actor William Shatner once said, “The conundrum of free will and destiny has always kept me dangling.” Previously, this debate has been present mainly in the theological world between different religious denominations. However, recently this examination has moved to the secular universe. I am of the belief that we can live our lives with free will over our actions because of my ideas on humanity, my views on life, my understanding of reason, and my belief that there is a Creator.
The future of education is very promising to younger generations. From Kindergarten though college many changes are brewing. On the horizon are things like smart objects, full-length online courses, and prosthetic devices designed to equalize education.