Spinoza And Free Will Essay, Research Paper

There are many great philosophical ideas and questions that are known and of course unknown. One of the questions that really enticed my interest was the question of whether or not we have free will. I myself was once a believer of people having free will and doing what I want was my choice and my choice alone. However, after careful consideration and lectures I have been reversed in how I believe in free will. Is there any free will though? Many people would say yes there is and of course there are some who believe that free will is a fallacy and not to be believed. Whether or not there is free will is yet to be determined but what we have to go on and by is from philosophers and every person who has their two cents to fill in. In this discussion of philosophy there will be points made for and against the establishment of free will and basis for judgement of free will exists or not.

Spinoza, Paul, Augustine, Luther have all grappled with this question of free will for many years. What has been said goes to a religious side. Which has been believed of an omnipotent God who will preordain who would be saved and who would be lost. In the simple but complex question in the book of whether or not you slept in late or not, and has been said that God knew you would. With the explanation of the book in its words go as follows; ?This means that you could not have not slept late this morning, because God knew you would sleep in late this morning.? Which does bring an interesting part to the ever growing discussion of free will is how could you have slept in on your own free will when in fact it was already known that you were going to sleep in late? The belief that God knows everything and all things big and small does highly contrast with the fact of if we have free will or not. There are many different views on the way free will is looked upon, but there are other cases that can show that human body does not have free will. Is there something that governs our bodies, that controls them in ways where we have no clue that it has happened until seconds to minutes after the act has been done? A simple case to see if are bodies are governed is by taking a look at people with handicaps. All of the quadriplegic and paraplegic people in the world, they do not have the ability to move their arms or their legs whenever they feel like it because of damage to their nerve cords in multiple places in the back and neck region. Spinoza has been a supporter for non free will and that the laws of physics govern material bodies, and what happens to a material body is completely determined by what happened before. This happened because the mental and material are one and the same, what ends up happening in the minds is as inevitable as what happens in the material bodies. To do a perfect quote from the book, ?Everything was, is and will be exactly as it must be.

On the other hand of free will the side of whether or not free will does exist there are many who believe that free will not only exists but also thrives as we speak. There are many different examples of why and how free will is there. Many have said that because I can do this because I just said I can and I am doing it right now whether it be waving a hand or just plain walking. There are reactions that we can control in the human body, we can voluntarily move our arms, legs, hands, feet and so forth but we can also decided when we use the restroom and even how we talk (we can lower or raise our voice). With the including of God into the talks of philosophical ideas, many can easily dismiss the fact if there is an omnipotent God then the fact of free will being affected is said to be a bunch of words. There is an argument for free will stating if there was none, how could the life of a human or metaphysical being ever be able to go on with life? These are many different ideas when it comes to metaphysical science and the questions.

In conclusion, there is still a lot to be determined whether or not that free will does exist. There has been many factors that go towards the belief in free will and the beliefs that free will does not exist. This question has been philosophized for many years and most likely for many more years to come, and with most philosophical ideas the answer is never easy to find or if it is even there. I myself have been inquisitive on whether or not there is such thing as free will or if it is just a big hoax tying to get people to take the bait. After many lectures and discussions about the relationship of free will with God and how it clashes, with talking to classmates and talking to the teacher and what others believe. I have taken a lean towards the fact that there is no such thing as free will, if are bodies are not able to function properly without all the components working then how can anybody say that ?I have Free will.? In my mind it is a simple answer: If there is free will then why can?t people who are quadriplegic or paraplegic sort walking or move their legs at all? In my mind, there is no free will.

Moore,Brooke And Kenneth Bruder. Philosophy: The Power Of Ideas. 4th ed. Mountainview, California: Mayfield Publishing, 1996.