Philosophy-Find a point of disagreement and give your reasons.

For your reply to a classmate’s thread, choose one of the following:

• Find a point of disagreement and give your reasons.
• Find a point of general agreement and provide an improvement to some aspect of his or her point.

Your reply should make clear references to at least one of the three sources, in a minimum of 200 words.

James

When reading and examining the course materials for this week related to free will I found the strongest challenge to free will is determinism. The existence of free will is based on the presence of agent’s ability to choose what they want (Dew Jr., & Gould, 2019).  If determinism is true, then free will is simple a part of our imagination, but if it is not true then it is completely just random (Dew Jr., & Gould, 2019). One will find support for this in Carlo Filice’s article Free will is still alive.  Carlo supports the notion free will is not determinism, hence the only other choice is randomness (Flice, 2018).  This is challenging for me because there is three version of determinism; logically, theologically, and physically.  Each one states the future for someone is already decided upon, solely by some form of other element.  

When I look at the strongest defense of free will, I find myself leaning towards compatibilism.  It goes with the thinking that freedom and determinism are compatible and have no conflict.  Dew and Gould says, “All that is required for freedom, says the compatibilist, is the “agent’s unhindered ability to do (or choose) what he wants” (Dew Jr., & Gould, 2019). “As long as the agent does or choose what this agent wants to do or choose, and does so without coercion, the act or choice is free even if determined” (Dew Jr., & Gould, 2019).

Free will is absolutely an essential attribute of human personhood.  Their mere existence is made of the mind, body, and soul.  It is free will that gives a person to formulate their own beliefs, choices in life, and desire.  Those things give a person a purpose in life and existence.  Without the ability of free will no one would have a choice of what happens in their daily life, and they would be controlled by factors beyond their control or even our existence. Lynn Rudder Baker gave an easy to understand explanation of the two qualities each person has. The first quality is the intentional state, which is a person mental state that controls desire, intentions and planning.  It gives a person the ability to choose who they love or hate.  The second is the first person perspective, which give the person the ability to have desires, intentions and plan.  Free will is manifested throughout scripture, God give us all choices and calls on each of us to choose the path that he knows and will lead to him.  In Deuteronomy God spoke to the Israelites when he was finalizing his covenant with them. He gave them the choice to choose life or to choose death.  Free will is built within each of use, God gave us that will.  Free will is an important part of human life, because without it, what would we really have?     

Dew, J. K. & Gould, P. M. (2019). Philosophy: A Christian Introduction. Retrieved from

Filice, C. (2018). Free Will Is Still Alive. Philosophy Now: a magazine of ideas.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/124/Free_Will_Is_Still_Alive    

Matthew

Free will

While I am a strong supporter of free will, I would tend to lean towards Theological Determinism as being the strongest argument for any form of a deterministic world.  The consideration that God has determined the outcome of all past and future events seems far more plausible than Logical or Physical Determinism. Logical Determinism opens too large of a void and allows for the theory that there is another deciding factor or deity that would make decisions on my behalf. If it was preordained that I was going to either do something or not do something a century before I did or did not do it, who or what made that decision?  

I’ll use the example from the reading of someone raising their arm at a certain time. Taking the stance of Physical Determinism, that everything that happened in the universe before that moment is what caused me to arbitrarily make that physical movement for no reason. If you take into consideration, the infinite number of actions that occurred prior to that moment, such as a dinosaur stepping on an ant. There is no fathomable way that it would eventually cause me to raise my arm at that moment for some arbitrary reason.

I believe that the soft determinist side of compatibilism is the strongest defense for free will. This stance holds that even if things are determined, one still has a choice to make decisions as long as there are alternate possibilities to choose from.

It’s my belief that free will is essential for us in all aspects of life. While I agree that God does determine certain aspects of our lives, he also allows us free will. He may send us in certain directions during our lives, such as bringing certain people to us; good, bad or otherwise. He may present certain options to us, such as, open our eyes to potential passions or interests or careers. But though he may give us these options, it is ultimately our choice on whether to take those paths or choose the options he presents to us. The decisions we make, turn us into who we are.

Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers

Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.

Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS

Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?

Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.

We write plagiarism Free Content

Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.

Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.