Personal Narrative: I Believe In Free Will

As humans, free will is something we commonly assume we have. When evaluating what free will is, we become less certain. David Hume calls it “the most contentious question of metaphysics.” In simplistic terms, free will is having the ability to determine your own plan of action. There is a relationship between free will and freedom of action and causal determinism that must be evaluated to have a complete understanding of free will. There are compatibilist views that believe in free will and incompatibilist views that imply there is no free will. Free will is also related to both theological determinism and logical determinism.

Are we free thinking creatures? One question is usually on the minds of anybody who has ever had that thought; do we have free will or is everything determined by fate? Its my personal belief that you can't have one without the other. Your fate is determined before you are ever born,but it’s your decisions and choices that ultimately decide how you read that fate. Macbeth, The Odyssey, and Oedipus are all works that show how one’s fate is reached using free will.

Everyone on earth is defined by their core beliefs. It’s what makes us all individuals, what separates us from the others. It wasn’t until I was talking with my friend Sean in 8th grade that I started to realize that one of my core beliefs, something I was taught growing up, may not be my own belief.

It’s an age old question which has puzzled many. Do we have free will or is our every decision predetermined? Free will as in making your choices or fate. Some say our lives are controlled by fate, free will, or both. What do you believe in?

Free Will is the capacity of acting without the pressures of fate and the ability to act because of one’s discretion. It is an idea that most believe in, because it means that you are in control

Many people have wondered whether our lives are destined right when were born or do we have the freewill to choose our own destiny. In my opinion, our lives are driven by free will because things happen based on the choices you choose and they may not be destined to happen. For example, whether you choose to go to school or not it is your free will on whether or not to go. It’s not destiny for you to miss school. Life applies to free will because the choices in life you make focus on what you want the outcome of your future will be and how you want your choices to affect those around you.

Do I have free will, or is every action I make predetermined? This question has concerned me for a long while. It has been the topic of many family dinner conversations, a topic of research, and a question in many prayers. I believe that this question concerns many people, since finding an answer has been the source of much literature, thinking, and religion. I have, after much thought, arrived at the conclusion of Soft Determinism - the Principle of Universal Causality, that for everything that exists or happens there is a cause, is true, but this principle is compatible with the Condition of Free Action. By Condition of Free Action I mean that a person is in control of his own actions (is the source of them) and

Every paper, no matter how well written needs to be revised and edited as time goes on. In some ways, life is similar. We all go through changes that influence us and shape the direction we are headed. Some of these changes come from our own prerogative while others are inspired by friends and family members. I know that my worldview has gone through this revision process. Even looking back to freshman year I had many of the same ideals, same focuses on values and hard work, but over time they have come to manifest themselves in different ways. For instance, I am much more willing to share my beliefs and opinions on controversial issues. This developed as I came to realize my ideas are worth arguing for and I gained a knowledge of

It also depends on how we explain free will; free will in this case is how one acts out on their own will. Our genetics can determine how we can act. When our

Do you believe that humans have free will in their decisions, or are they entirely a product of their personal environment, circumstances, upbringing, etc.

I agree with the idea that determinism exists and that every action has its own cause and effect. As a result all our actions are determine, however we should acknowledge that there are two types of causes; internal causes and external causes. By doing so, I’m expressing that internal causes are actions that are caused by the inner desire or will, like I chose the ice cream over the grapes, because that’s what I desire. On the other hand external causes are actions that are forced or caused by something external, like teachers telling kids what to do, or the police arresting someone. Therefore when I say that I acted on free will I acted with internal causes.

Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

I believe that “free will” does not exist in any shape or form. “Free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity of fate, the ability to act at one’s own discretion”. Relatively speaking we “humans” are groups of atoms simply reacting with other groups of atoms. Elaborating on the human brain and our emotions, it demonstrates that since we are conscious an illusion is formed that we have free will when it is all cause and effect. In comparison humans are like robots, we get all of our knowledge from our surroundings and all start off with different software (genetics). Whether it’s from raising your left and right arm to the slightest twitch in your body is all a direct result from external causes.

As an outset, we should first get a clear understanding of what “free will” actually means. “A being has free will if given all other causal factors in the universe (genetic and environmental, physical and chemical…) it nevertheless possesses the ability to choose more than one thing” (Caplan, 1997) There are many different definitions of freedom, but the kind of freedom I want to address is one where an individual can do as he or she pleases even if bound by chains to the ground. This type of freedom is freedom of the mind from causal deterministic laws, the idea that every event is dictated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature. I think that the strongest argument for free will is

The first matter to be noted is that this view is in no way in contradiction to science. Free will is a natural phenomenon, something that emerged in nature with the emergence of human beings, with their