Free Will Essays

Free Will Essays Free Will Essay Free Will Essay The power to make your own decisions and not have your choices determined by your genes and your past shows that the philosophy of free will is the most compelling philosophy. Naturalism is the philosophy that we, as humans, are influenced completely by our genes. The genes we were created and born with do not control the choices we make. If genes were the only things that influenced a person’s decisions, then scientists would be able to invent a machine that could make its own decisions and have all the thoughts a regular person has. So far, to the general public’s knowledge, there has not been a robot or machine invented that can think completely on it’s own. There have been machines that show some signs of higher level thinking, but nothing near that of a human’s. Free will allows us to think on our own. It lets us choose what we want to do. Our genes do not put thoughts into our head’s, they don’t force us to do good or evil. We have the free will to make those choices and to do what we want to do. Social determinism is the philosophy the all the decisions we make in the present and future are determined by everything that happened to you in your past. : Your upbringing does not completely influence all of your decisions. Many people who grow up in the same families can end up turning out to be completely different people. If a child was brought up in an abusive and addicted family, many times they can go against all odds and end up becoming remarkable and moral people. You are often influenced by what your are told and shown growing up, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have the chance and free will to go against those influences and make our own decisions. Many people may try to use their upbringing as an excuse as to why they do the things they do, but that’s all it is, an excuse. You have the power to carry out any decision you want to do, your past has little to do with the present. Overall, everyone has a different opinion on free will and whether or not we, humans, have it. But I think the fact that our decisions are not limited to what our genes and upbringing tell us to do shows that we have free will. Our behaviour is determined by our own choices, and any argument as to whether social determinism or naturalism is more convincing always falls short in some way.