Essays on Determinism

One of the central questions of philosophy has always been a debate as to whether or not humans are free to make their own choices, or whether or not the causality of the external world affects are ability to make choices. This question is important because it underlies the centrality of what it means to be human and how culture is constructed. If freedom to make choices exists, then institutions such as prisons are just, because they punish on the basis of the assumption that someone who has committed a crime was acting freely and of his own violation. ...

- Introduction
While humanoid robots are often thought of as robots that look and move exactly like people, this is not necessarily the case. The idea of a humanoid robot includes robots that are completely identical to people, of course, but also encompass any type of robot that has a vaguely humanoid shape. These robots are made to have a body shape that looks like a human body.
There is something psychologically enthralling about robots that share humanoid body shapes; they interest human beings and can form bonds with them. Although current-day robotics are not good enough to create ...

Determinism can be defined as the philosophical proposal that every incident, choice and act is causally ascertained by an uninterrupted chain of earlier incidences, and further that the chain of circumstances that led to the event will not lead to any other event. The theories of determinism all along the history of philosophy have come from at times motives that are similar.
Certain forms of Determinism can actually be tested empirically also. The converse of Determinism is said to be free will. Essentially, Philosophy is the manner in which some people think about a few distinct questions. The most ...

Introduction

Determinism is a word used in philosophy to describe the idea that all events, actions, decisions and forms are a consequence of antecedent or past events that were inevitable. In its extreme philosophical sense, the word determinism describes naturalism, or the idea that everything is natural including our decisions and human behaviors. It is very important to separate the word determinism with pre-determinism, another term that vaguely describes the idea that everything in the universe is predetermined. The concept of determinism has been around for thousands of years albeit taking different terms, among them, necessitarianism, a term that describes ...

Socrates: I would say that determinism is when a person believes that a person’s actions are completely unavoidable. That our actions are essentially predetermined and we are unable to change fate. This is something that can also be seen in nature.

Me: So then, what of free will?

Socrates: Free will could be considered as almost the opposite of determinism. Where under determinism one believes that man cannot change the events that transpire under the idea of free will one believes that man has the ability to affect absolutely everything that happens to him. He is not bound to any set of predetermined events.
Me: ...

June X, 2014

One of the most heated debates in philosophy is about the nature of free will. Determinism has not been proven false, and maybe never will, but the issue of the compatibility between determinism and free will is still generating very productive discussions. The question about how much responsibility can be attributed to men for their actions has not been answered yet. The debate between those who hold that nothing happens without a cause, and those who affirm that men are free and, therefore, completely responsible for their actions, is far from being settled. Although most people would agree that ...

This paper evaluates arguments put forward by various authors Ron Kaufman and Laknath and Ritson with respect to the effect of television on our lives. This analysis will be based on two concepts: technological determinism theory and social shaping perspective.
First, it is essential to understand these two concepts. Technological determinism theory holds that society’s technology influences the society’s cultural values and social structure. In other words, this theory proposes that technological advancements, as well as productive technology, shape social relations. Besides, society’s economic and technological base shape the cultural practices and social relations of that ...

I believe in causal determinism that means that every event (except maybe the first one) was caused by what came before.
Casual determinism states that all events, including human action and choices, are ultimately necessitated and determined by preceding events, which are influenced by the laws of nature. The idea of casual determinism is in par with the scientific theory in holding this reality but raises an objection from the free will concept. Physics gives a reason to doubt the certainty of determinism using the probabilistic theory that shows no certainty in the occurrence of events. Since the laws ...

According to Marx, revolutionaries required a new historical theory. Marx preferred the theory by Hegel, which he supported in his argument. Marx started his argument with the social class and furthered to the people’s relation, and the means of production. According to Marx, m6en are classified into definite relations that are independent of their relations of production. The relations of production are made of the foundations, the economic structure, and the political superstructure. According to Rigby, Marx states that historical change is because of contradiction, and conflict. The mode that is used in production affect the overall process ...

Philosophy and Number

Libertarianism is often seen as the theory which is in polar opposition to hard determinism. Libertarianism believes in free choice while hard determinism dismisses it. The libertarian believes in moral responsibility while the hard determinist finds this concept incoherent, and so on. Carefully examine Machan's reasons for believing that free will exists. Pick two of these then write a 1-2 page essay explaining why you think they are strong reasons for believing in free will, or why you would reject them.
Tibor Machan, professor emeritus at Auburn University, is a libertarian who strongly uphold the idea that human beings ...

Philosophy

Compare and contrast the concepts of determinism, compatibilism and libertarinism as outlined in chapter 4. What are the weaknesses and strengths of each of these positions? Which one do you believe is the most likely to be correct? Why?
Determinism is a term that was coined in the 19th Century to explain causal law in the motion of atoms in structures. Today it is a philosophy that is believed to be metaphysical because it uses laws of physics to explain sociological phenomena. This philosophy is based on the premise that in order for something to happen there must be ...

The power of rational beings is a mystery that unveils around human nature. In this case, the mystery assets about the power of human beings to do what they are able to do. Actually, this form of mystery is of determinism and free will. There are numerous intuitive on how to understand the concept of free will, as well as determinism. Based on a common opinion morality is one of the requirements of free will. This is a common opinion based on the requirement of an object. It is crucial to understand and investigate the relationship between morality and ...

English

THEME: FREE WILL Vs. DESTINY
INTRODUCTION
After reading the book the best theme that I understand is the conflict it has shown between free will & destiny. It is a topic of confusion in almost every human beings life. The desire of changing the future according to our free will or depending on destiny is a thought that comes in every individual's mind. The Time Traveller's Wife similarly explores determinism versus free will. Determinism is the idea that our lives are predetermined & freewill implies the idea that our choices can largely influence as well as change our future. In the ...

Abstract

There has been the introduction of architectures that are mutlicore in nature and for that reason; there has been the emergence of applications which are multi-threaded which are commonly susceptible to bugs of synchronization like data races. The development and use of software that are able to detect data races are known to incur a lot of costs due to increase in overhead costs. The use of hardware for the detection of the data race is a solution that can be used and is better and cheaper than that of software use. All the hardware solutions that have been ...

Abstract

The issue of free will (freedom) versus determination has been around for a long time. It has continued to be a puzzle for philosophers ever since. Philosophers face such trouble with the issue of freedom versus determination because without freedom morality would be unheard of among the humankind; and such there would be no good, no wrong, or evil. All of humankind’s behavior would be priory determined, and; therefore, man would be left with no choice or creativity (Fischer 1994). ...

David Hume, one of the foremost philosophers of the 18th century, was a skeptic and empiricist whose outlook on free will is based heavily in the sciences and what is known. Hume, being a compatibilist, deals mainly with the concept of reconciling the freedom and emotional nature of humanity with the coldly rational perspective of determinism. According to Hume, human behavior is commanded primarily by desire, instead of reason - "reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions" (Hume, Treatise, p. 295). The concept of free will is summarized greatly through the differentiation between liberty ...

Free will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. According to the historical views, the constraint of dominant concern is the metaphysical constraint of determinism. The opposing positions within various debates are metaphysical libertarianism, the claim that determinism is not true and thus free will exists and hard determinism, the claim that determinism is true and thus that free will does not be there. These positions, which agree that causal determination is the relevant factor in the question of free will, are classed as incompatibility. Those who do not believe that determinism is relevant are classified as compatibilists, and offer several alternative explanations of what constraints are relevant, such as physical and mental constraints (e.g. imprisonment or chains), social constraints (e.g. censure or threat of punishment), and psychological constraints (e.g. phobias or compulsions).The principle of free will has scientific, ethical, and religious implications. For example, according to the religious realm, free will implies that individual choices and will can coexist with an omnipotent divinity. In other ethics, it may hold implications regarding whether individuals can be held morally fit for their actions.

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Social media interaction currently has taken control of both online and offline dialog. In a community where interacting and over-sharing online is the culture, one is likely to chat with friends and relatives through electronic devices instead of face to face. These changes have had much impact on the interpersonal social skills among the young and old individuals. As a result of increased technological changes, both internet, and other media have been embraced and are coordinated (Baym, Nancy, Yan, Zhang, and Mei-Chen Lin, 6). This has had much impact on youth’s way of life, activities, attitude, and behaviors. ...

Free will represents the capacity of a rational agent in order to select a course of action from the several alternatives. Free will is regarded as the power of the up-to-usness (Campbell, 2013). It means that the actions performed by the individuals are in fact up to them in a robust way. Moreover, free will is also the source of actions. The freewill is important because its implications are powerful enough for touching the roots of the objectives and purpose of lives of human beings. The moral implications of free will, however, reach the law, politics, psychology, ethics, epistemology, ...

George Orwell’s award winning novella “Animal Farm” owes its timeless appeal in part, to how the story line has parallel human experience. Written originally as contemporary satire of the Soviet Union and the Russian Revolution it could also portray how the American Republican Party usurped the Tea Party Movement while the Democratic Party absorbed much of the grass roots energy of Move On and, to a lesser extent the Coffee Party. As a result, these advocates for change now do little more than represent views of the existing government, bringing about no new change at all.
Since determinism ...

Technology has been advancing in a way that the society could not readily control (Hochschild et al 1). There are many critics about how the technology could really influence the society and the future. With the changes in the society and culture, advancement in the technology is a very important power that could greatly affect in the future. The objective of this essay is to discuss the three important concepts which are technological determinism, technological optimism and technological pessimism. The essay also aims to analyze its examples as well as the responsibility of engineers.
Technological determinism is a concept ...

Philosophy questions

- St. Anselm in the 11th Century proposed the first ontology on the existence of God. In his argument, St. Anselm proposed that God’s existence is derived from the concept of, “being than which no greater can be conceived,” (“Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy,” 2011). Therefore, a being that no greater than it can be conceived is God. However, his argument shows that it is necessary to belief in God, but does not, in fact, prove the existence of God.

Work cited

Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy . “Ontological Arguments”; 2011. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontological-arguments/ on October 13, 2014.
- Luke Tracy (2012) on ...

Performance Appraisal Methods

Methods of basic appraisal are techniques applied by human resource departments or generally employers to assess the performance of their employees. The basic methods are used in different way depending on the method being used. In most cases, the methods used focus on the performance of the employees in relation to the skills, ability, knowledge or any other established scale of appraising performance. The employers choose the basis with which the employees are appraised. There exist about seven basic appraisal methods; paired comparison, graphic rating scales, alternation ranking technique, management by objectives, forced distribution method, critical incident method and ...

Introduction

Inventories are the raw materials which the company has stored for use in production. Inventory management refers to the policies and inventory models that the company uses to conduct its operations. There are different kinds of inventory management models which are dependent on the nature and types of inventory that the company holds.

There are certain factors that have to be considered when considering the optimum inventory model. There is the ordering cost which is the price the company pays to the supplier for placing an order. It is assumed that the ordering cost has a variable and a ...

A marketplace of ideas can be defined as freedom granted to individuals to express their views, under the umbrella of liberty. It is rising beyond the analogy of economic barriers and other legislative restrictions in order to make known one’s ideas. The concept is said to influence truth and accountability, since it generates a competitive environment whence perceptions and personal ideologies can be expressed.

The concept is however not ideally viable, due to the countless constraints that are present at any one given place and time. The nature of the marketplace of ideas has been marred by commercial ...

w

Modernism and technology has transformed women from their limits of housekeeping to taking up leadership positions. A modern woman has the freedom to choose her path and work towards being what she desires to become. The last five decades has however seen women limiting their positions of power. With all the options available to them, most of them have realised that they cannot necessarily manage some positions and therefore resolving to take lower status. In this paper, we take a critical look of some investigative materials on why women are making such decisions that may be considered ridiculous. ...

- Normal issues and Organ at Risk Due to Irradiation
The radiation effects in human are due to the deposition of energy in the human body. Not all the tissues are exposed to the radiation effect. Only few of the tissues are exposed to the radiation effect. The radiation therapy is used for the medical treatment. A high dose of radiation will result in damage of sensitive tissue, even, it may result in death. A high dose of radiation results in the death of cells. All the cells are not equal to the radiation sensitivity. Only the sensitive cells ...

Philosophy 101

Free Will
Free will has been a topic of intense debate in various fields ranging from philosophy and literature to law and the social sciences. As far as philosophy is concerned, thinkers are generally grouped into two broad schools and vary according to how strongly they agree with them. These schools are determinism and indeterminism. By and large determinists believe that the universe is run by a strict sequence of cause leading to effect while indeterminists believe that between cause and effect there is free will, or choice, which means that an effect need not be a direct corollary ...

ABSTRACT

For many years psychologist have studied athletes and what separates the successful from those who fall short. Carol Dweck’s work has helped Psychologist’ and athletes treat a major limiting factor, mindset. In a fixed mindset talents are considered innate. A growth mindset focuses on developing ability and talent through experience. Dweck’s research shows that people who have a fixed mindset reject learning for fear of displaying their shortcomings. Those with a growth mindset embrace acquiring new skills through learning and experience. This work is especially important because it has been supported that a growth mindset can be ...

Law and the Language of Power

Laws are an essential part of life because they are necessary for there to be the order. There are both natural and man-made laws. Even at a very basic level where we eliminate man from the equation laws are necessities. For example, if nature opposed what we now term as the laws of physics then life on earth would not exist. The very premise of man-made laws is that they are designed to benefits persons in positions of power. The code of Hammurabi epitomizes this property of man-made laws. Natural laws on the other hand attempt to bring order ...

1970-1980’s (Newman, Parse, Watson, Rogers) iv. Development of the metaparadigm per Fawcett

v. Development of paradigms
1. Simultaneity and Totality
2. Particulate-Deterministic, Interactive -Integrative, Unitary Transformative
III. Discuss knowledge development in nursing (10 points)
a. Carper’s Ways of Knowing
b. Emancipatory Knowing
c. Ways of unknowing
d. Role of research
e. Role of the socio political environment
IV. Application/Synthesis for Advanced Practice (10 points)

Describe how the new advanced knowledge, in the course to date has informed and influenced your own perspective on nursing:

i. Philosophic
a. What philosophy is most congruent with your own personal philosophy and why?
ii. Paradigm of Nursing
a. Discuss the congruence between your nursing philosophy and your nursing paradigm
b. Describe which ways of knowing are most integral and important to your theory, philosophy ...

Philosophy

Philosophical claims and explanations present a frame of thought as well as a discipline that is inclined towards a wonderment of the fundamental dynamics of life and the world as a whole. Philosophical explanations focus on both activity and content. This method is mostly based on reflection on questions about the human nature and the society as a whole. Alternative opinions are also respected and taken under deep consideration in this method.
Scientific claims are claims that are firmly hinged on evidence. For a claim to be considered as scientific, it must have significant backing in terms of proof. ...

Radiologists and the complementary professionals and para-professionals face unique risks while at the work place. Exposure to ionizing radiation induces nuclear changes in cells that may cumulatively lead to cancer. In the case of the patient, the exposure to radiation is necessary in order to establish diagnosis or treatment and the benefits should outweigh the potential harm. For the staff on the other hand exposure to increased levels of exposure is hazardous and undesirable. Shielding is used to avoid accidental exposure to radiation, as well as careful obedience to the laws of physics. The effects of radiation lessen as ...

In today’s world, nothing elicits so much outrage than the subject of slavery. The bone of contention seems to be: why should one human being enslave another? Although people in the modern world may not fathom the rationale behind slavery, it is indeed true that slavery was an accepted institution in the ancient civilizations. It is even possible that slavery predates civilization. One of the reasons why slavery as a practice went on for so long was because enslavement of war prisoners and slavery as a punishment were accepted in the ancient civilizations. Nonetheless, such acts prompt the ...

Prejudice can be explained as an act of making of predetermined judgement of the situation or about other persons without credible information to support the decision. This can be termed as negative or positive evaluation about individuals over some phenomena which are not well supported by rational decisions. On most campuses, prejudice attributes are predominant. The most of decisions made by students are predetermined which are not fully based on rational grounds. On contradiction, the students in the campus have an access to the same facilities.
The contact hypothesis explains on the impact of direct individual interaction on the ...

Moreland has interests in various fields, which include ethics and applied ethics, and philosophy of religion. He is well known of Cartesian dualism that he calls it substance dualism. In this perspective, Moreland asserts that human beings are composed of physical substance, which is the body as well as immaterial substance comprising soul or mind. His defense on dualism begins with the attempt to make immaterial souls be more palatable to those who do not believe. According to him, people mostly believe that there are numerous immaterial entities in existence. On the other hand, materialism is problematic because he ...

Technology has been a crucial part of the human culture since time immemorial. This is evident in the way tools and weapons were used to help people adapt to their environment (Murphie and Putts, 2003). Through civilization, the interrelationship between culture and technology is clearly brought out through activities such as farming, cooking, and even music. In modern times, technology has enabled faster means of conversing through better communication devices such as mobile phones. Technology has improved how people dress, the human intellect and what people believe and profess (Mack, 2001). Technology is deep rooted in various homes. It ...

My interest in the topic of lucid dreaming comes from the fact that I have always been baffled by the phenomenon of dreaming. When I dream; I am transported to an alternate reality where the rules of science and nature no longer work. I have also noticed that dreams have some power over reality and vice versa. After a good dream, I wake up happy while after a terrible dream, I am never upbeat to face the day. Interestingly, just having a normal dream is not the ultimate when it comes to experiencing “false realities.” I was surprised to ...

Management: Innovation

Introduction
- the description of innovation
- The elucidation of factors leading to innovation for instance the adoption of common language enabling the workforce to understand each other

- The advantages of innovation will be expounded together with their effects on the society for instance the growth and introduction of new industries

Disadvantages

- The disadvantages of innovation to the society

Conclusion

- The conclusion will follow restating the hypothesis of the paper as had been given earlier on
Innovation refers to first occurrence of an idea for a new product or process. It describes the first commercialization of the idea. ...

This essay has been written by Name of Student of Class of Student of Name of College

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature written by Steven Pinker was published in 2002. It was the best-selling book of 2002 that argues about the adaptation of human behavior by evolutionary psychology. Pinker talks about the three inter-related doctrines challenged by the modern science. The three doctrines or dogmas comprise the leading examination of the human nature in scholarly life. First one is the blank slate that means that the mind does not have any inborn qualities and it is like a clean slate. Second one is the noble savage which means human is born good ...