Before I read the TOK book or did any research, I firmly believed in free will; I didn’t even think about the idea of determinism. Now I have completely changed my mind. The main idea behind determinism is that everything you do, your actions and the way you think, are caused by genetic inheritance and early experience, which in both you do not have the free will or power to choose or change them. No matter what you think of whither big or small, you can still trace it back to those two things. For example, I decided to steal a bank and kill some innocent people; you can prove that I did this because of my experience as child. And if I decided to change, and stop stealing banks, I could still trace it back to early experience. If I succeed or fail in in this change, are already predetermined by how I am as a result of genetic inheritance and early experience.
Free will believers do not have the freedom to do everything they want, as they are limited due to the laws of nature and society. Although I would love to just jump and fly to wherever I want, but I can’t because the natural laws force me to stay on ground. Same thing as I would like to rob a bank, I can’t because laws of the society try to force us to do what is right, which limits our freedom.
The question now is who should be blamed or be held responsible for the things we like and do, and the things that happen to us. Determinists believe that we are not responsible for the things we do, because we are not responsible for the way we think, because it is all determined by our genetic inheritance and our early experiences. The problem with this belief is that if people are not held responsible for their actions, then the world will turn into chaos. Determinist then used the reform theory, which suggests that people are punished not because of what they did but to change their behavior. If for example I get in a fight at school, the school should not punish me fighting, as I did not have control over my actions, but punish me so that in the future I would stop fighting. I do not agree with this theory, because it just doesn’t seem that logical. If I was punished so that I would change, this does not mean that I have changed, as might still continue to have fights with other students. Also we cannot always hold our genetic inheritance and early experiences for the things that we do. My parents and their parents are very kind and helpful; also as a child I had normal experiences like all the other kids of my age. If I grow up and turn out to be a killer, the only responsible for it is myself.
In conclusion although things are just the effects of previously carried out action, on the most part we still have control over our actions. We are also responsible for our actions. Whither they are good or bad, we should take responsibility of our actions or else the world would just not make sense. The determinist viewpoint is more accurate but not practical. People would abuse theory, do some reckless things, and deny responsibility. We can conclude by saying that we should take full accountability of ourselves, even though we do not control the direction we are going.
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