AP+Determinism

Mr. Shingler AP Language and Composition 26 August 2011 Determinism Project

Patrick - Audience The audience of determinism is philosophers, and religious or atheist people. Determinism can arguably be opposed by Free Will which is what is taught and believed to some religious groups such as Christianity. In Christianity it is taught that free will is given to every man and that everything they do or believe is their choice, which is supported by the Bible. “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:13-15). In the quote it explicitly states that “God cannot be tempred with evil, neither tempteth he any man” which means that he will not tempt man, or he gives man free will. This is believed by those who follow the Catholic church, and are part of the audience for determinism, because determinism opposes their belief of Free will.

Atheist, and those belonging to many secular groups believe in determinism, rejecting the ideals of free will, and claiming that determinism leads to improved moral behavior. Their argument is that people make subconscious decisions that only feel like we chose them, even though it was predetermined by neurons in the brain, and other environmental factors. In response to this ideal, former head of the Human Genome Project Francis Collins states that "You're talking about genetic determinism, which implies that we are helpless marionettes being controlled by strings made of double helices. That is so far away from what we know scientifically! Heredity does have an influence not only over medical risks but also over certain behaviors and personality traits. But look at identical twins, who have exactly the same DNA but often don't behave alike or think alike. They show the importance of learning and experience - and free will. I think we all, whether we are religious or not, recognize that free will is a reality."(Collins). Collins mentiins how twins “have the same DNA but often don’t behave alike or think alike.”, although they are exposed to the same exact condition they are very different based on their own choices. This helps to prove the point for free will, however, atheists, and secular groups will continue to believe in determinism.

James. King James Version. Web. .

Deem, Rich. "Does Atheism (Determinism) Negatively Impact Morality?." Evidence for God from Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Aug. 2011. Destiny - Aim The aim for determinism is that for everything that happens, there are conditions that make it so. In other words, cause and effect. People who believe in determinism think that because this happened, that happened. “Opposed to this view is the doctrine of Indeterminism, or what perhaps may more accurately be called Anti-determinism, which denies that man is thus invariably determined in all his acts of choice.” (Maher). There can be not free-will if there is determinism and the other way around. People who believe in free-will think that there is always a choice to be made and nothing can influence that choice. Determinism believe that the choice has already been made ahead of time.

Honderich, Ted. //The Determinism and Philosophy Website.// UCL. Web. 24 August 2011.

Maher, Michael. "Determinism." __The Catholic Encyclopedia.__  Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 25 Aug. 2011.

Dillon - Culture Culture affects the way in which things happened and cannot be changed due to how we are raised and the way people project themselves. “The central moral issue of the past century was whether a traditional (in fact, millenniums old) assumption behind moral thinking should prevail, or should be replaced by a newer, seemingly more compassionate thought” (Karnik 1). As stated by Karnik the choice whether or not moral thinking “should be replaced by a newer, seemingly more compassionate thought”, will ultimately determine or create the future. Determining what is socially acceptable also determines the events of things. “The power of popular culture is that it enables us to see the consequences of our assumptions without having to suffer them ourselves”(Karnik 1). As stated by Karnik, “popular culture is that it enables us to see the consequences of our assumptions” and thus this determines the fate of things to come. Ultimately the way we are raised determines how we view the world, how we feel about it, and how we decide to act accordingly.

Karnik. “The American Culture - Free Will, Determinism and Pop Culture”. The Culture Alliance. Web. 17 August 2007. [|__http://stkarnick.com/blog2/2007/08/free_will_determinism_and_regg.html__]

Maddy - History There is a myriad of ways that history has been affected by deterministic beliefs. Determinism is that, “an event E is causally determined if and only if there exists a set of prior events {A, B, C …}” (Hoefer). Determinism is basically cause and effect which is what every historical event is. Anything in history is cause and effect. The American Revolution was caused by the mistreatment of colonist making the effect a violent revolution creating America. The stock market crash of 1929 was an example of determinism because, “In October 1929 the stock market crashed, wiping out 40 percent of the paper values of common stock.” (Nelson). The stock market crash caused the prices of stock to go down. Because the price of stock went down, the people who were stock owners could not sell their stocks at a good price making them lose money. Because they lost money they could not buy more stock; not funding more stocks. By not funding more stocks the system could not recover. This is an obvious example of determinism because event A caused event B but with our event A, event B would not have happened.

Nelson, Cary. The Depression in the United States – and Overview. Modern American Poetry. Web. 26 August 2011.

Hoefer, Carl. Causal Determinism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010. Web. 26 August 2011.