a few thoughts…

As humans, we like to believe that we have free will. This idea of being able to control the outcome of our lives, or determine our own fate, sounds ideal, but do we really have it? David Hume argues that everything in our lives is determined and believes that free will doesn’t exist. Because everything in nature has a cause and effect, and we are apart of nature, people’s lives are the result of many cause and effects.

If everything we do throughout our day is caused by something else, then we technically don’t have control of our fate. David Hume suggests that all people are similar in a way because we all have the same motives in life. Passions, such as vanity, friendship, ambition, and generosity, are all sources of actions that every human experiences. When a person we know well acts out or behaves unusually, we make the assumption that something must have happened for them to act this way. So, if your friend is more irritable than usual or seems annoyed, you probably assume that they must be tired or had a bad day, not that they suddenly hate you or randomly decided to be a mean person. As Hume writes, “we mount up to the knowledge of men’s inclinations and motives, from their actions, expressions, and, even gestures”. And he believes that people who think some uncertain outcomes are just random occurrences, aren’t realizing that everything in nature is caused by something, even if it’s the smallest and least obvious things.

With the idea of determinism in mind, I still think that we are responsible for our actions. Even though our actions are determined, I feel like as people we still have moral judgements to know right from wrong. But, I guess in relation to determinism people wouldn’t really have control over their actions. If every decision and action has a cause, then as humans we should still be able to know that if we commit a crime or do something wrong, we should be held responsible for the action. There are still consequences for harmful actions, so even if we technically aren’t “responsible” for the thing we do, people should still acknowledge wrong doings.

I used to think that if free will didn’t really exist that the world would no longer make any sense. Feeling like we don’t have the freedom to control our lives sounds scary and overwhelming, but determinism actually brings me some sort of peace. Knowing that everything in nature has a cause makes complete sense to me, and it’s not like we don’t have any freedom in the world. Determinism, to me, just means that the things that happen in life actually do have a reason for occurring. Events aren’t random and by chance because every decision was made as a result of another decision. If anything, determinism is the explanation to the things we felt happened for no reason or didn’t make any sense.

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