Assess the claim 'Our lives are determined'

In contrast to determinism, fatalism holds the view that our lives are already planned out and there is nothing we can do to change that. Fatalism does not deal with the causal necessity that determinism does. Going back to the idea of the water on the floor, a determinist would say this is only possible if the water pipe had burst. A fatalist on the other hand would simply say the water will be on the floor regardless of what happens prior to the event. This belief also agrees with the idea that our lives are determined and it also leaves no room for free will. I am inclined to disagree with this claim; we can accept the idea that one day we will die, but a fatalist would not make an attempt to change their lives since they believe what will happen has already been decided and therefore do what they see as nothing. If this were the case then everyone would be in the same situation as one another. People are in their respective positions today as a consequence of their choices and motivations, not because it was already planned out. A seemingly better working idea would be that of predestination.

Predestination is similar to fatalism in the respect that our futures are known. However it leaves room for free will. Typically a religious view on determinism, predestination is the belief that we have taken an action because God knew that we were going to do it. This is not to say that God has already set out our future; that is evident in the semantics, pre meaning ‘before’, therefore ‘before destiny’. This implies the power of free will because predestination means that God knows what action we will take before we make it, but we retain the ability to make the decision ourselves. Therefore we can say that predestination disagrees that our lives are determined because there is no implication that God makes our choices for us, his omniscience is merely present. Although in my opinion this claim is unrealistic to those who are atheists, mainly due to the fact that this idea strictly relates only to those who believe in God.

Libertarianism coincides with the idea of free will. The reiteration of the belief that our choices are not subject to the laws of nature shows us that libertarians do to not agree that our lives are determined. Libertarians believe that we have the power to reject our desire, refashion our personality and choose morality over self interest. In order for our lives to be determined, there must only be one outcome for every cause in our life, however a libertarian always believes that ‘I could have done otherwise’ this goes to show that the consequences of our actions are directly linked to our choices; therefore showing that the outcome was not down to causality, but to our decisions. This claim directly agrees with the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre and his existentialism. The key idea in existentialism is that ‘existence precedes essence’. This is to say that we have no predetermined nature, the fact that we are presents the evidence that we hold the responsibility of our own behaviour. Similarly to libertarianism, existentialism holds the view that we are able to act freely independent of determination. Sartre claims that ‘A human being is absolutely free and absolutely responsible. Anguish is the result.’ This is to say that feelings of dread and nervousness are primarily there to remind humans that we do have a choice in every situation; there is no a priori nature that overrides our decision making. In my view this claim is one I agree with, not only is there physical evidence to support the claim but it also empowers us with responsibility. If we were to view the world through a determinists eyes we would have no responsibility, this would simply not work because if that were the case then why do people make choices that decide their future every day?

Karl Marx disagrees with Sartre with the idea that we have the ability to choose our nature and personality. He claims that ‘Man is a product of his economic circumstance first and foremost.’ This means that our nature is defined by our ‘class’ background; this is better known as economic determinism. This idea links with the theology of species essence in the view that our needs are predetermined by things such as available resources. If this is the case then therefore our different work practices, lifestyles and relationships lead to different ideas, consciousness and language developing. This idea seems evident when we look upon the economic diversities in the world, for example, a poorer man would feel more inclined to steal to feed his family and not think it to be a bad thing, whereas on the other hand a rich man may think this deed is an inexcusable crime simply because he feels no need to steal; in other words with the division of labour, different moralities, politics and philosophies develop. I believe that Karl Marx does have a significant point and it would seem true in most cases; however the question is are the situations that we live in predetermined or is it a random event?

In terms of free will and determinism, randomness does not work. If every event was to happen by random i.e. chaos theory then there is no way to prove that our lives are determined since the term random goes hand in hand with the concept that it is unknown until it happens. In the same respect, randomness does not work for free will. By accepting that everything is random, it destroys the importance of human agency and at the same time takes away our responsibility since randomness denies causality. On the other hand, some people may think that events happen at random (for example winning the lottery), however in my opinion I put this down to ignorance; looking at the semantics of the word it clearly states that something appears to be chance, simply because they do not know the actual cause.

In conclusion, there are many theories that address the question of our lives being determined. But only a few seem to work in my view. Libertarianism and existentialism both provide adequate evidence to support my opinion that we have free will and we adopt it to shape our lives. Marx’s economic determination provides some interesting and accurate ideas in retrospect and leaves me with the conclusion that our lives are not determined but we are however shaped by our economical environment.

Word Count: 1,400 (bang on!)