Philosophers, make your comments here

[Tenacity]

As I'm currently writing a paper for my Philosophy class regarding the opposing viewpoints of Determinism (fate/destiny) vs. free will, I'd like to hear some comments from the community regarding the topic.

Do you believe we have free will, or do you think that everything which happens is the result of a previous event which caused it to happen?

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[Recovery]

No way to prove it, no evidence either way, any thoughts on it end in a paradox... Yeah, it's philosophy.

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So basically you're shooting someone else's ship?
PvP abuse, IMO.

<div align="left">[center]<span style="color:#FF0000">[7:31:41 PM] Justin Hopkins: You are a morons.</span>[/center]</div>

[TheJarl]

Both, I do believe we make the choices by ourselves however we make the choices based on previous events. According to my physics studying brother the only random the universe is in quantum mechanics. So people base their actions on previous events. However it is our choice what to do with this information still. If I would have a stick and a person standing with his back to me in front of me. I could choose to hit him or not to hit him, but I would be influenced by what I know of that person and what he had done in the past.

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[ryeguy146]

I find it distressing to believe in some destiny or fate. I don't like the idea that my future isn't in my own hands, no matter how badly I bungle it. I want my mistakes to be mine, and my victories to be my own. Perhaps it's pride, perhaps fear of the unknown, but I don't like the idea of determinism.

Even if our actions are based on prior decisions, we can still choose to ignore those influences. Like trying something new.

[rupturex]

Do you believe we have free will, or do you think that everything which happens is the result of a previous event which caused it to happen?

Seens that both here operates toguether, you have free will to chose your acts and each act will determine the final result. I think free will > fate/destiny. Anything that you do now will afect somehow the future. Well this is what I think, but how knows...

[jammi]

Even if our actions are based on prior decisions, we can still choose to ignore those influences. Like trying something new.

That's not how the concept of fate works though. Fate, is where you can't see those influences at work, and don't realise they're manipulating you. Only way to change destiny would be to see your own personal future and react based on that - although it may have been fate that you'd alter that timeline of your life all along anyway. Fate strips your freedom, and lowers you to unknowing actors in the theatre of life.

If you couldn't tell, I'm really not a fan of determinism.

I don't think the two can co-exist mutually either. If you have the free will to alter an event, that means your time line is malleable. Can be altered. If not, you're back to predestined fate. I think determinism and free will are the opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum and can't co-exist. Something else that occupies a niche between them maybe, but I'm not even sure what that would be.

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[Linkus]

Lay out the choices of every life, every event and decision, regardless of time.

If you pick any point in time, you could say the choices led to it.
However the person picks that choice.

Fate and free will need not be seperated, they can be intertwined.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[jammi]

Well, that's closer to history and causality than actual fate. You'll always be able to pick out the events that led to something, but it'd only pre-determined or fate if (most easily explained using deity) some omnipotent being decided in advance that the result was the only possible outcome.

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[Marburg]

there's some logic to that.

Humans have free will, yet the choices we make as individuals tend to force our species on the whole to continually repeat the past, making 'fate' seem plausible.

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[The_Scarlet_Pimpernel]

Tenacity!

How could you!?

What if your prof found out you are letting a gaming community draft your paper for you?

Will you correctly give references to ideas you pick up here?

Uhm... ok...

I'll give it a shot.

Free will is the little trigger inside the human brain that lets humans have a small impact on the cascade of events in a deterministic universe. A person's free will is also deterministic like the rest of the universe, but we will never notice it because at present we cant know for sure that someone will really do something until he really does it.

Doesnt sound good for a paper, does it?

Thats why I didnt study philosphy.

I already have all the answers.

That and you cant get a job in hell with a masters in philosophy.