Free Will And Determinism Essay

As Peter van Inwagen said in his 1974 paper “The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism”, “To deny that men have free will is to assert that what a man does do and what he can do coincide”. I believe that we have free will do long as we are given the choice to go against fate. As time goes on, modem advances continue to give use more and more opportunities to change our fate. As humans grow as a species, we see our ability to change our path more and more. We also need the belief in free will to keep us sane and keep the human species prosperous, as Edward Wilson theorized. Though we may have a predetermined end, I think that the choices we make along the way change the path, and may even change our final destination. First, I believe in free will because advances in medicine give us the choice and ability to live longer than fate would necessarily allow us to. We now have machines that can keep a heart beating after the person should have died. We have medicines

Wilson views it, “Confidence in free will is biologically adaptive.” Humans need free will to give them the sense that they have some choice in their lives. If humans knew that they had no choice in how their lives turned out, regardless of whether or not they do, there would be no progress in mankind. No one would feel compelled to seek advances in science or technology, whether or not they could make that choice on their own, because they would know that what must be done, will be done. But humans need to believe in free will so that they will continue to progress and believe that they are making a positive impact. As science views it now, there is no way to be positive whether or not free will is that play within the human being. We can only forge on with this hope and this belief no matter what evidence there is to back it up because otherwise human species would fall to shambles from lack of productivity and an optimistic outlook on