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Free Will Versus Determinism - College Term Papers

Free Will Versus Determinism

The controversy between free will and determinism has been
argued about for years. What is the difference between the two? Looking
in a dictionary, free will is the power, attributed to human beings, of
making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by
an agency such as fate or divine will. Free will allows free choice. Yet,
determinism is the total opposite. Determinism has this definition: The
philosophical doctrine that every event, act, and decision is the
inescapable consequence of antecedents that are independent of the human
will. Determinism states that humans have no free will to choose what
they wish. That seems real extreme and harsh. Even though ...

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The other argument for
determinism is causation, or causes and effects. This argument depends on
relationships that should happen with the same results every time, such as
a baseball breaking a window, breaking the window. Basing on this,
everything in the universe has a cause. And if all the causes and the
events were known, then it would be possible to easily predict the future.
If everything can be foreseen, then this proves that nothing that anyone
does can change the courses of the future. This, of course, is not
possible. Determinism says that what you do can be the cause of what your
life turns out to be. This can be true. Yet, you can act otherwise that
would steer you off that path of where your life was heading. Common sense
tells us that we can change, which determinism opposes to. It also says
that if we feel we are not forced, we could have acted differently.
That is why I choose to side with free will. Determinism has too many
extremes and limits that, already ...

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Free Will Versus Determinism. (2004, August 5). Retrieved January 6, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Free-Will-Versus-Determinism/12189

"Free Will Versus Determinism." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 5 Aug. 2004. Web. 6 Jan. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Free-Will-Versus-Determinism/12189>

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 8/5/2004 11:08:11 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1083
Pages: 4

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