Determinism_and_Freedom_in_the_Government

David J Blake 1 Soc-102 Blue Team Professor Johnson 2-20-2011 Determinism and Freedom in the Government The conflict between determinism and freedom is a long-standing one in government. This is one of those philosophical issues that might never be agreed upon.  It is up to each person how they views the issues and seeks was to resolve it. As with most philosophical issues, determinism and freedom is a contentious because they oppose each other and in order to support one, you need to give up the other theory. This will never happen with our government. It is generally believed that the two cannot exist together for they are in total conflict with each other and thus I believe are incompatible. It is therefore important to first understand what is meant by determinism and freedom.  Clear definitions of the terms can help us decided whether the two are compatible or not. Determinism" is the philosophical position, which maintains that behind every event is a cause or another event." Let's look at this a little closer, what this means is “that every event has a cause and that everything in the universe is absolutely dependent on 2 and governed by causal laws." Since within our government there are these determinists who believe that all events, including human actions, are predetermined. So base on the philosophical meaning, determinism is typically thought to be incompatible with freedom. So what the view is in regards to human theory that all human action is caused entirely by preceding events, and not by the exercise of the will of freedom in the government. In philosophy, the theory is based on the metaphysical principle that an uncaused event is impossible not on the fact that we are free to act independent from our government, but scientists have spent endless time testing and proving causes of certain behavior and in some cases effecting its control tends to support this very principle. So, Determinism ignores the role of choices or moral responsibility and primarily focuses on the role of previous events or cause in the creation of a new event, clearly. However I still believe that determinism does have a part to play in our government system.    Does freedom in government has any place at all' We know that freedom is our desires and aversions, hopes and disappointments, beliefs, fears and plans clearly.  Our experience fully conforms to this most basic requirement of freedom, and that leads us to employ the idea of freedom in describing and interpreting human activity. Unless we change the nature of previous causes, we can't alter the current 3 events. Our experiences have shown us that we are given choices in most matters of importance or so we are lead to believe in our rights to vote. When a person has freedom, it means they can act in more than one ways, choose the path or a thought that they finally can act on. Let me explain this a little bit more clearly. We see similar views expressed by contemporary century thinkers of our past and present lives. Take Aristotle for example; he wrote that freedom is: "where it is in our power to act, it is also in our power not to act". So based on his reasoning, human experience is not confined to the actual power but to have awareness of what may already be determined.  An example of this would be, from high school to college, to job search to career, which would apply to most of us in most cases, but who would make these most important choices, we as human have been given choices to make in our everyday life. Another example could be, when a child misbehaves with an elderly person, determinism would free him of his moral responsibility because, “behind every event is a cause or another event,' so by this definition his beavers was caused, not a choice. But with freedom the child has a choice to behave more properly or not. Child is than given freedom of his behavior and to act on his alter the outcome and apply them in their life. That simple experience of choosing among alternatives is therefore sometimes described as "the experience of freedom" and shows sufficient evidence that we are free. Humans have power to choose from 4 various options and are therefore free to exercise their free will. Determinism thus implies that a person never has a choice of multiple paths in our government as well.  We are made to believe by the government that we have freedom, but do we' This argument misinterprets self-determinism as teaching that human acts cause themselves.    Self-determinists, for example, do not believe that the voting in a Presidential election cause itself, but rather they maintain that the public execute the vote in a presidential election. Indeed it is the public that chooses to elect the President. Thus the cause of an election being voted is to be found within the public right to vote. Self-determinists would not deny that outside factors, such as heredity, environment, or God, had any influence in the vote. However, they would maintain that anyone involved in the presidential election could have decided not to vote if they had chosen to do so. True enough, but then why have Presidential elections at all if we all made that choice. This argument for determinism is self-defeating in the government however. A determinist must contend that both they and the non-determinist are determined to believe what they want to believe. Yet the determinist will make many attempts to convince the non-determinist that determinism is right and thus ought to be believed. But this is impossible according to determinism. There is only one way around this objection, and that is for the determinist to argue that he was 5 determined to say that one ought to accept his view. However, "on the basis of pure determinism "ought" has no meaning. For "ought" means "could have and should have done otherwise."  However, his opponent can respond by saying that he was determined to accept a contrary view and compromise. Thus determinism cannot eliminate an opposing position. This allows the possibility for a freedom or free will position.    So is a deterministic account of human action compatible with human freedom in the government' Not at all and will never be in my opinion, the government wants control as well, and with the ability to govern its people's freedom and they will. This is already being carried out by the laws the government impose on the people it severs. So the two will never exist together for they are in conflict with each other and thus are incompatible. So as I said before that determinism and freedom in our government is a contentious issue because they oppose each other and in order to support one, you need to give up the other. This will never happen in our government. Resources: wikipedia.org wikiversity.org/wiki/Historical-Introduction www.oxfordscholarship.com plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill web.ics.purdue.edu www.trinity.edu/cbrown/intro/free