On Humanism and Determinism Essay

Before my head start year in college started, mom and I went to the mall to buy school-related things, including n mavenbooks, pens, and a bag. When we arrived at the raiment-section, I lay out myself stuck in deciding which duad I should postulate. Well, its non because I acceptt like any locomoteually, Ive found what kind of pair I want, moreover my mother kept on insisting a nonher pair. It cease up that I bought what she liked for me because the pair that I liked didnt fuddle a size appropriate for my feet. From this situation, I wondered if I had any sense of cededom at all.It is inevitably true that the exit about openhandeddom has always shaken the world of benignant beings since time immemorial. I wonder, too, if I am really a free being. For me to be able to know if I am really free, I would need to answer some questions that competency fulfill my inquiry What is exemption? What does it mean to be free? Are we free beings? To help me with my questions, I contract aim about an argument between determinism and freedom. Also, I read Baruch de Spinozas (a determinist and one of the most important modern philosophers) claim on freedom.Determinism is the dissertation of universal causation in simple terms, it claims that everything in this world is caused. On the other hand, freedom is the domain of being free from restraints. As a doctrine, it maintains that some of our actions ar free. These argon both paradoxicalsomething contradictory and contradictory. This is because if everything is caused, then so atomic number 18 the actions that we claim to be free. But they (actions) atomic number 18 the result of some causes which do us perform actions, so we be non free.How is that?Baruch Spinoza, as a determinist, also stated that we are not free agents but parts of a divine machine which thinks and acts in accordance with the gross(a) laws of nature, in short we are not free. Why? I will answer my de expirer questions by defin ing what freedom is. Freedom is the exemption or indecorum from slavery or imprisonment. It is the liberty of choice or action. It is also the state of the will as the first cause of kind-hearted actions, or self-determination in human beings 1. To be free is to enable one to do what s/he wanted to do. To start the argument, let us first take a look at the consecrate Bible.Another blessing that God gave us when He made us in His image is the throw of freewill or the freedom to choose. Through this gift we are given the might to act and not to act, and so, to perform deliberate acts of our own. Man is rational and t presentfore, like God, he is created with free will and is master over his acts. In this statement, it is given that we are given the freedom to do what we wanted to do. But, according to the determinist Baruch Spinoza, it might go the other way that we are not really as free as we think.Spinoza had an inquiry on the following things (1) What sort of world do we live in? 2) Who put us here? (3) Why? I would like to focus on question number 3, but first there must be answers on numbers 1 and 2. What sort of world do we live in? Spinoza answers that the world is infinite and eternalit has no beginning and end in the place and time. It was never created and destroyed, and is just simply, profoundly and eternally is. For the next question on Who put us here, Spinoza answered that its God. God, Spinoza asserts, is the world. Each of us is a definite and an important part of Hima cell in His body, a segment of him. Every human body, therefore, is a part of Gods body.Everything that happens in the worldour faith, destiny and actionsare in accordance with Gods plan. In the terzetto question, it was asked, Why? . The answer to this question, according to Spinoza, is that we have been born in order to be happy. But, what is happiness? 2It is the charge of pleasure and the absence of pain. To be able to attain this, we must first try to find our limita tionsfor example, that we are only parts of Gods divine machine, and that we follow Gods will. As for human will, it also follows the laws of necessity. There is no such thing as free will. Why?This is because the actions that we do are determined by a cause, which is determined by another cause, and this by another, and so on to infinity. The actions that we do are dependent upon another action. This, then, follows the claim of Determinism, that every action is caused. As to the first execration of my introduction, I had to buy things because college is starting. The cause of my action (to buy things) is because I need (necessity) those objects for school. Next is this I had to choose the other pair of shoes because theres no appropriate size for the one that I would like to choose.There was no choice to the situation. This is what we call a determinist position. It claims that no actions are free. Spinoza, as a determinist, states that we think that we are free because we are ign orant of the causes of our actions3. We choose only because we bolt to realize that we are not free. Choosing when one has no choicewhen one is not freeis founded on ignorance. But, if we are going to accept this thesis of determinism, then it would be paradoxical to itself. Why? If we accept this thesis, we are going to accept that no one is responsible to the action.For example, no one is responsible for me choosing the other pair of shoes, simply because it is not, nor my mothers fault to have a feet size larger than the available sizes for the pair of shoes that I primarily wanted. Who or what will be, then, the one responsible for the size of my feet or for the inaccessibility of the feet size? Nothing could have been done to prevent me from having such feet sizeI did not have it out of my own free will. Whatever caused my feet size must be caused by some introductory conditions and factors, which might have extend indefinitely to the past. This is the Determinist view.Does this exactly mean that we are not free? No, this is insufficient. In an argument we must look at the other side to see if it is valid. If there is a Determinist view, there is also a Libertarian view. If the determinist claims that we are powerless on the actions that we do and not do, the libertarian claims that it is within our power to act other than than we do. It means that the act depends on us whether we perform it or not. Thus, to say that an action is free is to say that we could have done otherwise, that we were free to do otherwise, and that we have the power to do otherwise.As for my mall-case, I could have chosen to not buy my school stuff than going with my mother. I was free to buy the pair of shoes that I originally wanted, not caring much if ever the shoes are too tight on my feet. I have the power to tell my mother that I dont want to buy the suggested shoes just because I dont like it, that I want the former instead. The libertarian holds that people do have free will, that there is free action, and that the thesis of determinism is false. It denies that all human actions are caused.Personally, I dont think that nothing was done before an action occurred. No, this does not mean that I am on the determinist side, but I am also not saying that I am on the libertarian side. Either to say that we are not free or to deny that all human actions are caused is insufficient. I do not agree when the determinist says that we have no freedom or power to do otherwise, because given my situation above, I was able to make choices. After choices come decisions. It is up to me if I will let myself be bound by the causes, or free myself from it.Probably, if I, or we are going to bend these causes to our own will, we will be able to prove that we are free and are not powerless, unlike the claim of the determinist that we are powerless in everything that we do. Thus, from supervision, I can take and have control over the decision of my actions. On the other han d, to act freely is not to act from an uncaused mental decision, but to act from the necessity of ones own nature. Human freedom resides in the power of reason to control the emotions because reason is determined not by external causes but from within. Reason, unlike imagination, follows a logical order in themes.Reason allows us to understand how things follow by necessity from the Divine Nature. As a person grasps the necessity of things an sees reality as a whole, s/he is free, liberated by clear understanding. In the grip of passions, we appear to be the under the power of external forces but as soon as we form a clear and distinct idea of a passion, it ceases to be one and we are freed. In this way, a clear understanding that all things are necessary gives the mind power over the passions. This understanding, which liberates us from the bondage of the passions, at the same time instills in us an intellectual love of Gods Nature4.Am I free? Yes, I am free. But I am not complete ly a free being. Our freedom to act does not mean we are completely free to do whatever we want. There are certain laws, rules, and principles in this world that we need to follow. Of course, we can do whatever we want, as long as we do not affect negatively the others around us. Spinoza might have stated that we should realize our limitations because only through and through that we could obtain happiness. I think that being limited to a certain aspect would mean that one is not free.