Just How Free Is The Question Of Free Will For Many Millennia

Colby Brownell Chad Brodbeck ENC 1102 December 4th, 2016 Just How Free Are You Mankind has pondered on the question of free will for many millennia. There are discussions of free will that pop up in religion, academia, politics, popular culture, and day to day life. To most, it might seem that humans have free will. Humans strive to be independent individuals, following precise schedules and strict regulations, always chasing after some dream of what they want from life. Humans more and more seem to be in control of everything happening on earth. However, a simple acceptance of the given reality is not enough. Our conception of free will ties into all aspects of human endeavor. If we are not the ones calling the shots then what is? What would change if we suddenly realized that we are not the ones choosing our actions, what would that entail for our societies, principles, and systems of morality? Who will hold the unaccountable accountable? Even if humans didn’t have free will would it be beneficial to still believe they did? Provin g whether or not humans have free will is tricky business. Numerous philosophers grappled with these questions for their whole lives, and more recently science has started to delve into the unconscious nature of human choices. Mark Balaguer in his book on free will set out to evaluate the arguments against humans having free will. The oldest argument for why humans can’t have free will stems from determinism. Determinism is the philosophicalShow MoreRelatedDescartes s Meditations On First Philosophy1295 Words   |  6 PagesThe belief in a higher power – an omniscient, omnipotent God – can be traced back for centuries, millennia even. Over the years, many great thinkers have struggled to either defend or discredit this belief, a belief that has managed to spread to every corner of the globe. One such thinker is Renà © Descartes. 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