Essay About Free Will And Persons Personality

The Reality Of Choice
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The term philosophy encompasses various meanings and raises
many questions for example, it seeks to explore the true meaning of reality,
truth, values, justice and beauty. ( Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia, 240 ).
There are many terms used by philosophers that are often interpreted
differently by other philosophers . Free will is an example as well as an
important debatable issue. Some philosophers view free will as non existent
, while others argue that it really exists and I strongly agree with the
latter . Every philosopher view the world according to his own culture and
religion and thats why each of them created different hypothesis and
theories . Some argue that the environment plays a major role in shaping
a persons personality and therefore is held responsible for all his
actions . Others claim that nature in itself has the upper hand with regard
to the actions of human beings. While Blatchford stressed that predicting a
persons actions proves the non existence of free will . ( 105 ) However,
Stace contrverted that there are both free and unfree will acts (112) but
I disapprove with all the previous theories because my religious upbringing
allows me to believe that free will determines our destiny.
Philosophers like Mill believe that a persons
environment is the major shaper of his character . He believes that
everything around the person affects his personality in some way or another
and thereby directing his actions to reach a certain goal previously
identified for him. He believes that a person has little power over forming
his own character , since his character is formed by the circumstances
surrounding him and since one of these circumstances is his desire to
change . This desire is awakened when the person experiences painful
consequences associated with his previous character ( Mill , 477: 481) .
Mill also states that ” A person feels morally free who feels that his
habits or his temptations are not his masters , but he theirs ; ” ( Mill,
480) .Free will is the ability of deciding freely what to do without fearing
anything or being influenced by a habit , a temptation ,an earlier
experience or tendency. For example , I know two twins who come from a very
religious and conservative family they were both brought up properly and
lived in the same environment . One of them chose to conform with her
family values and religious beliefs, while the other rebelled against those
beliefs . She doesnt pray , she smokes, drinks alcohol and pays no
attention to her family values . This example shows that any person
possesses free will and that the environment influences the personality ,
but doesnt determine his fate or decisions .
Similarly, Dholbach claims that nature has the upper
hand with regard to a persons choices and that no one can deviate from the
path drawn for him . He states that a persons actions are reactions to
forces implied upon him from outside objects , inside motivation or ideas.
This is why his actions are never free theyre always influenced by nature
either internally or externally . Even when he doesnt act according to
those forces it is probably because a new motive or idea arose and thus a
new force was created that directed his will in another path and preventing
the former action from happening . (Dholbach, 470:472) . This theory states
that nature decides for us and we are part of nature then we decide for
ourselves . When we act with regard to our motivations or sets of ideas ,
then we are choosing to act this way because those forces directing us are
coming from inside us . Thus free will does exist , because in any
situation there are always more than one path and we always end up choosing
only one. This chose we make is infact our soul and our whole- being.
According to Blatchford , free will does exit but
it is affected by both heredity and the environment . Blatchford states that
if the will is free and not affected by anything then blaming a person for
any of his actions is meaningless since the will is separate from that
person as it is free and acts as it wishes . Blatchford denotes heredity
by the temperament of the person and denotes that the effect of the
environment by training . Thus to him a person is affected by his emotions
, ideas , intelligence , mood , etc. as well as by his surroundings and
emotions . He adds that when a person hesitates to make a decision it is
because there