Metaphysics
The nature of reality is a perennial topic in metaphysics because it has no fundamental constituents (Kant & Abbott, 2012). Additionally, differentiating what’s real from unreal can be one of the most daunting tasks for the humans. Nonetheless, I have found myself on several occasions wondering if superstitions are real, especially the superstition about black cats as bad omens. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that this is not real because I own a black cat and it’s not a bad omen.
Someone once told me that the physical world is not real, and that the spiritual or psychological world is real. I couldn’t believe it because my eyes, nose, and sense taste and feeling can detect the elements of the physical surrounding, unlike that of the spiritual or psychological world. Ideally, the Bible keeps insisting that there is a shadow world in which the soul of the dead reside. When my grandmother died, the bishop said that her should had left her physical body, and thus was surviving outside her, and I believed it as real because I have heard of real life stories about the dead coming back to torment the living. So, the soul can survive outside the physical body.
My parents once told me that our lives were pre-determined when I was a young girl, this was the definition of fate. This actually meant that my actions would be determined by my past conditioning. However, I believe that all people have free will because the choices I have been making in life have never been restricted by fate.
Epistemology
Standish, 2006, describes epistemology as the theory of knowledge, but how is anything known? I know that questioning the existence of God might be considered blasphemous, but I am always fascinated by how people came t...
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...t occasions, my parents could tell me that my behavior wasn’t good. As a result, I use to ask myself; how should humans behave in a society? People behave in a manner that’s morally accepted by the majority in the as ethical or right. Additionally, do people give up certain rights when they choose to live in a society?
Nowadays, I have been forced to give up my freedom of association because I can’t associate with anyone or group outside my own. I have always doubted if everyone has different values, beliefs and preferences that affect individual beliefs and it’s evident that they do, but people behave differently in a crowd than they do individually. For example, I have asked myself this question whenever people demonstrate against the government. In social learning and social condition, language contains values and thus it can be used to mold the right behavior.
“Free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion” (Dictionary.com). The novel Slaughterhouse five portrays the idea of not having free will. The award winning author, Kurt Vonnegut, tells
A main example of fate would be when Billy is on an airplane. In Slaughterhouse-Five, it states that "Billy, knowing the plane was going to crash pretty soon, closed his eyes, traveled in time back to 1944" (198). Soon after, "the plane smacked into the top of Sugarbush Mountain in Vermont. Everyone was killed but Billy and the copilot" (199). Instead of doing anything about it, Billy just waits for the plane to crash. If Billy had free will, he would have tried to warn the others on the plane, or not gotten onto it at all.
Human beings always believe that what they want to do is ‘up to them,' and on this account, they take the assumption that they have free will. Perhaps that is the case, but people should investigate the situation and find a real case. Most of the intuitions may be correct, but still many of them can be incorrect. There are those who are sceptical and believe that free will is a false illusion and that it only exists in the back of people’s minds, but society should be able to distinguish feelings from beliefs in order to arrive at reality and truth.
The argument of free will and determinism is a very complex argument. Some might say we have free will because we are in control; we have the ability to make our own choices. Others might say it’s in our biological nature to do the things we do; it’s beyond our control. Basically our life experiences and choices are already pre determined and there’s nothing we can do to change it. Many philosophers have made very strong arguments that support both sides.
I believe that one's fate is up to the actions of the individual. If everyone agreed that fate was determined and that you could do nothing to change your own fate life would be a boring, monotone series of events structured out with no change. I believe that every action that you make changes the outcome of your life and the smallest events can have some of the most magnanimous affects on your life. In my experience it is the small decisions that you make that impact the larger decisions that you make later in life. For example a small task such as forgetting to brush your teeth one morning could lead you to not speak up during a discussion in class for fear of your bad breath which could fail to change the course of the discussion and fail to impact someone in a way that could later change the course of their day. Nothing forced you to forget to complete this task you lack of memory or time to do so did. There are over seven billion people that live on this earth and it would be infeasible for there to be a set structured series of events that would transpire for each individual. Free will gives meaning and purpose to one's life. Knowing that one can change their own situation for the better and gives importance to life. Without this life would be meaningless and bland with the events of your life unfolding before you as
Fate vs Free Will has always been one of the most controversial topics from early history, and for no surprise because everyone is fascinated about their future. Many people believe that life is predetermined and anything you do won’t transmute your future. Others believe that you are sanctioned to mold your own destiny and optate your own path. Your mind, for example, has total free will up to the point where you believe that everything you think is controlled by faith. Then you wouldn’t have a free thought because all that you will think was always going to be thought, and thus making faith decide you. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for certain and that is that we’ll never know the future because it is beyond our ken.
To answer the question if human beings possess free will successfully, you have to understand what ‘free will’ actually means. Free will is having the the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate. The ability to act on one 's own desires. There are a couple different ways of answering the free will question that get broken down into three main beliefs; Compatibilism, Libertarianism, and Determinism. Libertarians believe that humans are capable of possessing free will. Determinists believe that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to will. They believe that human beings are not morally responsible
There are a lot of different things that come to mind when somebody thinks of the phrase Free Will, and there are some people who think that free will does not exists and that everything is already decided for you, but there are also people who believe in it and think that you are free to do as you please. An example that explains the problem that people have with free will is the essay by Walter T. Stace called “Is Determinism Inconsistent with Free Will?”, where Stace discusses why people, especially philosophers, think that free will does not exist.
I believe that all people do have free will but there are places that you live that you might not though. Take South Korea or any other dictatorship those people that live there sadly don’t seem to have free will.
Our actions are based on our surroundings, we use what is around us to help us adapt and become better human beings. Another point of view on this issue might be that our choices can be influenced by people around us, although sometimes it may not best in our interest to become a follower. For example, we may go along with a decision of our follow classmates, helping us had guidance in our decision making process. Values and morals can not only guide but inspire and motivate us, giving us energy for doing something meaningful. Therefore I believe we must be honest with ourselves, recognizing the difference between right and wrong. Of course, there are some people who just cannot do the right thing, no one lives up to all their ideals, but I believe people are more honored to have some sense of morals and values that only make us look or feel good and just to things to make themselves look like they are a better person. In all honestly everyone is different and I would like to believe that kindness is passed down. Like the saying goes a smile is contiguous and sometimes that is all someone one needs to realize life is not all that bad. To leave off I would like to end this with Immanuel Kant, he
Every day in our lives and everything we do involves some degree of decision making or choice selection either mental or physical. We start making choices and decisions from the moment we wake up everyday to the second we sleep. Some decisions we make are blatantly obvious to ourselves because of our need to reflect on the choices before choosing. However, most decisions we make throughout the day are made without much thought. We are even, quite often, unaware that we are making decisions due to habituation and preference. Before going further, we must define the terms free will, determinism and fate or destiny. Free will is the ability to choose. Furthermore, it is the power of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate. Fate, or destiny, can be defined as the inevitable events predestined by this force. However, there is a better position to take when it comes to arguing against free will; and that position, or belief, is called determinism. Determinism states that the conditions at one moment are the necessary result from the “previous” conditions. Simply put, every effect has a cause, every action is predetermined. Unlike fate or destiny, it does not mean the future is already established. It is one thing to say that our choice is caused. It is another thing to say that we do not choose, and fate says, we cannot choose. This is definitely an endless argument given that it is a matter of personal opinion with no facts involved. However, free will definitely seems like the most plausible standpoint. We do have free will.
Epistemology “is a complex and usually opaque subject concerned with the origins and nature of knowledge.” (pg.17)
...n the supernatural realm when our physical body dies. I believe what the Bible says regarding life after death, which there is. I believe this through scriptures as well as teachings through church and family members. People who are not Christians can look around at philosophical teaching, which do not completely deny the fact that the spiritual realm exists and people live on after death. Philosophically life after death is hard to prove since this belief is strictly based on faith and not rational or empirical knowledge. We have a choice how we live our lives due to our free will. We are responsible for our actions during our life since we based them on fulfilling desires. The bible says, “Don’t be misled¬–you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant” . This is a basic characteristic of life, everything we do we have a result for it.
As we all have observed, throughout history each culture or society has unique norms that are acceptable to that group of people. Therefore, to establish and come to the acceptance of these basic norms, each society must develop its’ own strategies and techniques to encourage the fundamentals of behavior, which is clear in our modern society. Most do assume that everyone in a society will follow and respect such norms. However, some tend to deviate from the adequate norms and demonstrate deviant behavior. Nevertheless, we are inclined to ask ourselves, why do people decide to violate such important standards of living?
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief. Much of the debate in epistemology centers on four areas: the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to such concepts as truth, belief, and justification, various problems of skepticism, the sources and scope of knowledge and justified belief, and the criteria for knowledge and justification. Epistemology addresses such questions as "What makes justified beliefs justified?", "What does it mean to say that we know something?" and fundamentally "How do we know that we know?"