Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The debate over free will
The problem of free will
The problem of free will
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The debate over free will
Free will is a expressive flame that should never be extinguished. Fueled by inspiration and opportunity, it burns with the spirit of prosperity. Given the right conditions, an unstoppable force of endless idea and innovation can spawn from the fire. Individuality is not a quality to be leashed. Our ideas and characteristics are not meant to be uniform. In our modern society, being different is supported. We are encouraged to explore possibilities, test our limitations, and discover to attain new knowledge about the surrounding world. Goals and dreams are ours to create and fulfill. The path of our lives is left to our own will; we decide its course and the companions for our journey. Our freedom of choice is an unappreciated privilege. Without our uniqueness, we are bodies without souls. Our identity is based on our thoughts and opinions. These thoughts and opinions keep us from all being one person with different faces. In the novel Anthem, Prometheus yearns to no longer be just a number in the world's population. To be seen as an individual with his own ideas and personality is...
What the texts suggest about the relationship between how an individual sees themselves vs how the individual is seen by others, is through the concept of identity. An individual’s identity is shaped by many factors: life experiences, memories, personality, talents, relationships and many more.
In the long trek of life, people are constantly chided to follow their hearts, and to be themselves, and to let our individuality run free. As Georg Simmel once said,“The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life.” He is utterly correct. Every person, every mind and every heart, has their own way of doing things. We have associated individuality with singularit...
She contends that society cannot emphasise individual autonomy or social structure, and that both are required in a healthy society and ought to be unified. Lee declares that “what often takes the form of permissiveness in our society exists as the freedom to be, and to find actualization; and it is found within a clearly delineated structure” (10). She emphasises that it is important to allow the individual to deduce proper action through their own interpretation of an outlined structure; the individual ought to be able to make mistakes within a guided environment. Therefore, this structure is what offers individuals the methods to seek their own path in life. Creativity and natural differences are not squandered by group responsibility; rather, they are encouraged through the imperative of all working toward a common goal based on a shared culture. Specific to Western culture, Lee emphasises that individual independence ought not to be idealised as the end goal of personal growth. This concept, known as negative freedom, was discussed heavily in lecture and highlighted as unfeasible. It is impossible for an individual to disconnect completely from his or her society and fellow mankind. For example, a lottery winner is not free of society; rather, he or she now controls a large amount of capital to be used in obtaining services from other people. In contrast, true individual autonomy, or positive freedom, derives from working with other individuals within a shared cultural upbringing. This common backdrop allows mutual understanding and respect to flourish, through which true individual autonomy can be
There comes a point in everyone’s life when they are pressurized by society’s demands. One is given the option to either conform or challenge these social norms in order to suit one’s life.
This is a book that celebrates the individual human ego, a story of rebellion against the collective. Anthem begins written in first person plural, there is no 'I', "There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever"(Rand 19). The society the narrator lives in is one that suppresses anything that would allow an individual their own identity; first-person singular, names, and mirrors. Anthem speaks of 'I' in a holy light, deeming the word a god in and of itself, inciting the reader to feel awe towards the word. It uses biblical and religious tones to highlight the importance of first-person singular pronouns. At the same time, words with negative connotation are used with 'We' and 'Our', the first-person plural pronouns.
As times have changed, so has our culture. Our country tends to veer children towards one particular individualization over another. It seems developmental individualization is more common. People have expectations by society which they must fulfill, and are expected to do so at particular times in their lives, as said by Tamara Haraven who argues the importance of “… the timing of transitions, with those to adulthood becoming more uniform and orderly.” People are expected in life to go to school, work, get married, start a family, all these things are expected to be done at a certain time in their life. People may not want to do all this in this order and whatever point in their life, but they do because they are expected to do so. This is all supposed to happen developmentally. People are molded by society, actively making decisions and trying to be ahead of life’s obstacles. This is occurring in not only America but as well as in Europe, as Wallace observes how instead of becoming their own individual people, people “choose identities from among and increasingly complex array of options”. Sven Morch makes similar observations, on youths who must ‘master’ their adolescence ‘ways’ in order to become successful adults, showing the importance of structure to their culture. Life must be followed in a particular sequence according to ‘contemporary capitalism’ in order to succeed in life. With a million and one people trying to get the same task done, people do things because they have to, not because they want to.
“It’s a blessed thing that in every stage in every age some one has had the individuality and courage enough to stand by his own convictions.” The part of me that sums up my identity best is not the adjectives given by family, or the faults I find in myself. My identity is my desire to better myself, and my passion for children. My identity is who I want to be and what I do to accomplish my goals My identity is the feelings and emotions I pour into my journal every day, and the way I feel when I do something right. My identity is not what others thing of me or what I think of myself after a bad day. My identity is the love and confidence I have in myslef, and the beauty inside.
In today's society, people say that they want to stick out and want to be different; but do they actually want to be individualized and not conform to society? In some instances, there are those few people that do “stray from the path”, but most are too scared to be different from everyone else and face ridicule. The film Powaqqatsi by Godfrey Reggio and the book
As the social world is developed, it becomes diverse and accommodative to become for that individual to become a visionary person, be innovative, and appreciate and inculcate the virtue of being patient and passionate their goals. As they go through the social world, they get to encounter diverse individuals from different backgrounds and with diverse personalities. They learn through interactions positive qualities that will decree their future, as the saying goes, we are the run-of-the-mill of the individuals we spend most of our time with.
A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and surrounding environments are all factors that tend to help shape a person’s identity. Some factors may have more of an influence than others and some may not have any influence at all. As a person grows up in a family, they are influenced by many aspects of their life. Family and culture may influence a person’s sense of responsibilities, ethics and morals, tastes in music, humor and sports, and many other aspects of life. Friends and surrounding environments may influence a person’s taste in clothing, music, speech, and social activities. Personal interests are what truly set individuals apart. An individual is not a puppet on the string of their puppet-master, nor a chess piece on their master’s game board, individuals choose their own paths in life. They accomplish, or strive to accomplish, goals that they have set for themselves throughout their lifetime. Individuals are different from any other individual in the world because they live their own life rather than following a crowd of puppets. A person’s identity is defined by what shaped it in the first place, why they chose to be who they are, and what makes them different from everybody else in the world. I feel that I have developed most of my identity from my own dreams, fantasies, friends, and idols.
Since the foundation of philosophy, every philosopher has had some opinion on free will in some sense, from Aristotle to Kant. Free will is defined as the agent's action to do something unimpeded, with many other factors going into it Many philosophers ask the question: Do humans really have free will? Or is consciousness a myth and we have no real choice at all? Free will has many components and is fundamental in our day to day lives and it’s time to see if it is really there or not.
For the last 18 years or so, we have been influenced and directed by parents, teachers, and other authority figures. We have been told when to get up, when to work, when to play, when to eat, sleep, come home, go out, etc., etc., etc. Now we are moving on. As we do, let me remind you of two principles we have been taught, the principle of freedom and the principle of success. As adults, a whole new world of personal freedom awaits us.
Freedom, or the concept of free will seems to be an elusive theory, yet many of us believe in it implicitly. On the opposite end of the spectrum of philosophical theories regarding freedom is determinism, which poses a direct threat to human free will. If outside forces of which I have no control over influence everything I do throughout my life, I cannot say I am a free agent and the author of my own actions. Since I have neither the power to change the laws of nature, nor to change the past, I am unable to attribute freedom of choice to myself. However, understanding the meaning of free will is necessary in order to decide whether or not it exists (Orloff, 2002).
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you into something else is a person’s greatest accomplishment simply because it is so scarce in our world today. People tend to give in to conformity for the satisfaction of others. If you have individuality, you have the world. Individuality not only sets you apart from society, but the world itself. Individuality is not always praised in today’s, world but it is vital in order to create change. In the poem A Psalm of Life, the text Self-Reliance and artwork The Wanderer we get an idea of how individuality is a good thing and should be embraced and encouraged. To be an individual, one has to create their own life with no limits, express their way of being without fear, and continue to move forward regardless of any obstacles in their way.
We feel an essential need to start to be more independent, even though we are consistently being torn between not only making our family happy, but our friends and those we casually meet in conversation as well. There is a renewed sense of creating a persona that will enable us to shape how others view us and how we feel about ourselves. We care more emphatically about not just meeting the standard of society when it comes to friends, looks, and academics, but rising above the standard. This enables us to ensure ourselves a sense of security that we may be lacking. “It’s important to remember that our self-concept isn’t formed in an instant, and neither can it change in an instant” (Lane,