Free

Free Will and Schopenhauer Essay Free will is considered as having the ability to choose a course of action solely based on one’s character. Immanuel Kant argues that humans have free will and act accordingly, while Arthur Shopenhauer suggests that humans are delusional and desire to have free will, yet they are lead by laws of nature and motives only. Perceiving ourselves as acting with free will is just to satisfy the metaphysical requirement on being responsible for ones action. Free will is a phenomenon that does not exist; what is perceived to be free will is causes that we act upon and motives that drive us to do so. Every single action needs a cause to act upon. .Kant connects free will with morality and implies that morality lies within reason. He does not really explain free will but only refutes objections against it by stating that we are free by knowing we have duties. His argument suggests that even though we have morals we can always act immorally, by having the ability to act otherwise we have free will. Shopenhauer’s water example proves otherwise. â€Å"This is exactly as if water spoke to itself: â€Å"I can make high waves (yes in the sea during a storm), I can rush down hill (yes! in the river bed), I can plunge down foaming and gushing (yes! In the waterfall), I can rise freely as a stream of water in the air (yes! In the fountain) I can, finally, boil away and disappear (yes! At a certain temperature); but I am voluntarily remaining quiet and clear in the reflecting pond. † This example is deterministic and proves that in order for the water to do all those things, it needs a cause to act upon. Just as a man must have a cause that pushes him forward in order to act accordingly. The man needs a motive that will act as a cause. The causal determinism proposes that all future events are necessitated by past and present events combined by laws of nature. It is not a man’s free will that makes him act morally, but rather, it is the motives that make him act in any particular way. Kant would argue that acting morally has absolute worth because by acting morally, we engage in a higher order of existence. Schopenhauer gives the example of a man who gets out from work and evaluates his options which he thinks he can freely choose from. That man decides to go home to his wife. He thinks he made this choice freely but actually it is because the motive of going home was greater than the other options. If Schopenhauer was to challenge him to say ‘that was expected of you being the boring man that you are’, and he went to the theater with him instead, this would still not mean he has free will. It only means that his motives have changed because there is a different cause. Schopenhauer’s comment causes him to act defying manner. If this man had a more passive character, he might have still gone home to his wife. Causes would have affected him in different ways and he would have had different motives. Being responsible of our actions is demanded from us by the society; when we act accordingly it is because the society’s expectations cause us to act responsibly. Kant argues that as rational beings, we should consciously and freely choose the responsible thing to do because it is the laws we choose to obey that make us free. Schopenhauer would argue that the only reason we obey rules and act responsibly is because our motives drive us to that direction. If our motives were to conflict with the rules, we would stop being responsible. If men actually had free will that leads them to act responsibly, we would not be able to explain murder, theft or any illegal action that harms the society. When the murderer, the thief or the criminal perform their actions, it is because their motives are conflicting with the rules society set. Humans are subject to law of nature, without a cause, there is no effect; therefore we have no free will. According to Kant, one should act as if the maxim of one’s action were to become, a universal law of nature through one’s will. By stating that, Kant is actually making the law of nature subject to human free will, putting the effect before the cause. Schopenhauer presents an argument which explains why man are subject to law of nature: â€Å"For man, like all objects of experience, is a phenomenon in time and space, and since the law of causality holds for all such a priori and consequently without exception, he too must be a subject to it. † This suggests that we are experiencing the same causalities as every other being does, yet we are blind to see what is obvious. There are too many causes that affect men, which is why we get delusional while recognizing the causes. Both Kant and Schopenhauer use the billiard balls example to illustrate the relation between cause and effect. Kant states that we are not like billiard balls because we have the ability to make our own choices as rational beings. Whereas Schopenhauer suggests that we are like the more complex version of the billiard balls: we will only move if we are hit. We differ from billiard balls not because we have reason, but because we are so constantly hit that we stop perceiving the causes. Every single component in life cause our motives to shape in certain ways which is why it is so hard to recognize the causes we act upon. All our actions can be reduced to motives we have in order to satisfy our ultimate purpose: to live and to create life. Eventually we are ranned by simple motives such as maintaining our successive continuity of existence, reproduction or protection. Even a man who is about to commit suicide will pull his hand away if he accidentally touches a hot iron. His reflex will send faster signals to his brain before he can even acknowledge it. He would have no free will over that action; it would purely be him obeying the law of nature without even thinking about it. As subjects to law of nature, the decisions we make in our daily lives are mostly caused by the motives to find the best mate possible to create the best off spring. We do not necessarily recognize it, but even the most trivial choices we make, like the desire to drive a fancy car over a cheaper one, is not an act of free will. By doing so, just like a peacock showing his feathers, we are unconsciously lead by motives that push us into a certain direction which will make us more desirable as a mate. We want to be accepted by the society for the same reasons, being a part of a community provides a protection and opportunity to reproduce. The reason why a rich man would help the poor, or join a country club is not because he has free will that makes him morally responsible, or that he enjoys playing golf, but it is because that will make him more respected and better accepted by the society which he wants to belong. Our reflexes, hormones, neurons, our DNA and the causes that act on us condition the decisions we make. We choose to believe that we have free will because it makes us feel as if we have control on our life. As the biologist Lynn Margulis defines â€Å"Life is the strange fruit of individuals evolved by symbiosis. Swimming, conjugating, bargaining and dominating, bacteria living in intimate associations during the Proterozoic gave rise to myriad chimeras, mixed beings, of which we represent a tiny fraction of an expanding progeny. Through corporeal mergers disparate beings invented meiotic sex, programmed death, and complex multicellularity. Life is an extension of being into the next generation, the next species. † Nothing makes us any different than the bacteria, other than being more complex, that solely acted on their instincts. The only difference is the equation that determines our actions have many variables, whereas it was much fewer in prokaryotes. If we are able to understand that the simplest forms of life were acting upon the basic motives and no free will, we should be able to perceive that our actions are not different. The chemical distribution of our DNA will cause us to have an essence, which will determine our motives and actions under different circumstances. As the being gets more complex, the cause and effect relation will be harder to observe but still, there will not be free will.

Narrative- My Suppressed Wild Side :: Personal Narrative Writing

Narrative- My Suppressed Wild Side Ten years old: 1975, still in my boy body, my boy mind. Solid and strong with the endurance to play all day moving from the tangled, viney â€Å"jungle† on the far side of the pond to the secret play house in the damp dark basement of my best friend David’s house, to the high speed heroics played out on our banana-seated bikes. I was not a boy of course, but wanted to be. I climb trees, even ones sticky with sap. The smell of pine hangs on me as I lie in bed at night. I ride up the hill on Saturday, find David and set to digging a big hole in the dirt. We collect old pans and buckets from his mom’s messy kitchen and create a â€Å"hooey booey stew.† We are hobos having our meal by the tracks; we are Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone eating by the fire deep in the wilderness. The meal over, David and I pour our concoctions into the deep hole, add dirt and more water – he yells, â€Å"Get the hose!† – and then rolling up our â€Å"tuff jeans,† we stand in the muddy mix of grass and water and dirt, stomping up and down, giggling and falling over. What pleases me is to feel it between my toes and to feel the tightness of mud drying on my shins as we catch our breath lying by the hole – sun-baked. Afterwards, bellies to the ground, David and I crawl under the prickly, holly branches to get to our secret fort. It pleases me to taste the salty sweet of blood from a scrape that I refuse to get a band-aid for. Later, I ride my bike home from David’s full speed down the hill, but not fast enough to appease my full bladder. â€Å"Wonder what it would feel like to just pee as I ride my bike?† So I pee my pants and the sensation is a wonderful release – a naughty rule-breaking. And in the summer I jump with my brothers and sisters off a 25 foot high cliff down into the river where my dad waits for us. Oh†¦the force of the cold water on my skin and the strength of my father’s big hand as he guides each of us towards the rock to climb out. Summer nights I lie on the dewy grass, watch for shooting stars and try to the name the constellations as my dad has taught me.

Latitude and Type Your Response

Mapping The Lesson Activities will help you meet these educational goals: Science Inquiry? You will conduct online research, collect information, and communicate your findings In written form. STEM?You will apply scientific tools and knowledge to solve real- world problems in order to grow in your understanding of science as a creative human activity. 21st Century Skills?You will employ online tools for research and analysis, use critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and communicate effectively in order to solve real-world problems. DirectionsWrite a response for each of the following activities. When you have finished, submit your work to your teacher. Check the rubric at the end of this document to make sure your work is meeting the expected criteria. Task 1: Coaching In adventure books and movies, the hero sometimes has to follow a map to find a burled treasure. Today, a new sort of adventure sport has become popular In which people use technology to â€Å"find† tre asures. Coaching involves global positioning satellites, maps, and participants' sense of adventure to locate specific geographic spots.These could be situated in a local area and tracked down In â€Å"real time† or located anywhere on Earth and identified virtually. As you know. Every point on Earth can be Identified by latitude and longitude. In this lesson, you studied how to read points on a map in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude and longitude. For example, the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, is located at approximately 470 37†² 14†³ N. 1220 20†² 57†³ W. Use your map reading, Internet searching, and reasoning skills to find the following locations and answer the three questions for each.

Benefits And Limitations Of Renewable Energy Sources

In the world that we live, the prospects for renewable energy will increase in the European union as a whole, and in the UK in particular, in the coming decades. Renewable energy sources are already providing a significant proportion of the world’s primary energy, and it is likely to be providing a much greater proportion of the world’s energy by the second half of the 21th century. The European Union countries may do something to increase 20% of all energy from Renewable sources by 2020 to the society.This essay will outline the benefits and limitations of two common renewable energy sources, then, it will discuss how the topic suggestion is realistic in the UK context, and finally, what need to be done to increase renewable energy to 20%†¦show more content†¦John Twidel and Tony wair ,2005 in renewable energy resources points out that It has become one of the fundamental principles for policy in the 21st century. The politicians, industrialists, environmental ists, economists, and theologians, are affirmed in the world the principle as they seek international, national, and local cooperation. However, reaching specific agreed policies and actions is proving much tougher! In the international context, the word progress relate to amendment in quality of life, including improving standards of living in less developed countries. The aim of sustainable development is to achieve this aim while safeguarding the ecological processes upon which life depends. Locally, progressive businesses seek a positive treble under line, (a positive offering to the economic, social, and environmental well-being of the community). We know that many changes in social patterns are related to energy supplies. We may expect further changes to occur as renewable energy systems become even more widespread. The influence of modern science and technology ensures that there are considerable improvements to older technologies, and subsequently standards of living can be expected to rise, especially in rural and previously less developed