'Only Hard Determinism is justifiable' Discuss. Determinism is the idea that all actions are governed by laws outside of one’s control. Some philosophers believer that one’s ability to make free choices is an illusion whereas, others state that there is something else beyond understanding that may cause one’s actions to be determined. There are a variety of theories which are response to dealing with debate about free will and determinism. Hard determinism is the theory that human behaviour and actions are wholly determined by external factors, and therefore humans do not have genuine free will or ethical accountability.
He also shows men as incapable of conserving or prolonging their life without living under a ruling body, “augmentation of dominion over men being necessary to a man's conservation, it ought to be allowed him.” It is evident that both Machiavelli and Hobbes’ views of man greatly influence the way they think that man should be controlled. Machiavelli believes that man should be lead by a ruler who is manipulative and inspires fear
Rand says “Reality, the external world, exists independent of man’s consciousness, independent of any observer’s knowledge, beliefs, feelings, desires or fears…” (qtd. The Ayn Rand Institute 1). Consciousness, therefore, is to distinguish reality, not to fashion or form it around a personal belief. Consequently, Objectivists reject all forms of a supernatural or any beliefs unfounded in fact. In the quote below Rand explains why she rejects religion outright, and she believes man himself deserves the attention: Just as religion has preempted the field of ethics, turning morality against man, so it has usurped the highest moral concepts of our language, placing them outside this earth and beyond man’s reach.
He is only worried about the attainable future and ideals, while Plato is more focused about the enlightenment of man, and the understanding of knowledge. Machiavelli would indeed react poorly to Plato’s ideas in “The Allegory of the Cave” and would reject his “utopian” vision in favor of his own more “realist” vision. Plato, on the other hand would reject Machiavelli's viewpoints just as
A cultural dimension that influences how people manage conflict is whether their culture is one of low or high context. Michael Dorsey displays a low or individualistic culture in Tootsie. Michael is a very direct and tell-it-how-it-is individual in the movie. He does not agree with skating around the issues. As an actor, he feels that his audience should see things for how they really are, versus how the directors, screenwriters want the audience to portray them.
In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, John Galt believes that selfishness is both moral and practical because having “concern with one's own interests” is concurrent with both the desire to live and the refusal to support “looters”. Galt believes that the survival of man is possible only by the use of the mind, this being demonstrated through his strict moral code. According to Galt, men must live by values and earn their living through production, rather than destruction and must never give or take the undeserved. Expectation for something in return for nothing is considered barbaric, leaving mutual trade as the only civilized method of human interaction. When selfishness is taken out of the equation and economic resources are seized from producers
Empowerment of the individual may be either beneficial to society or threatening. How have your studied texts shaped your understanding of individuality and its place with the broader social discourse? The refusal of the individual to yield to the repressive values imposed on them by authority characterizes the insignificance of individuality within the broader social discourse. While the figure representative of authority refuses to ethically uphold its obligations of maintaining order, the individual renounces authority’s power and in doing so rejects their attempts to subdue individual freedom. Such is evident in the actions of messianic protagonist, McMurphy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
Campbell is observed to constantly blaspheme God and I may not feel comfortable spending evening with him. Campbell embraces the trans-theological view of myths and opposes the mythic understanding of existence of an unidentifiable and undefined source of power. He rejects this mythical view since it somehow appreciates existence of God who is most supreme and not understandable by man.
Our intentions, feelings, and imaginations are stripped down and mystified to being products of our upbringing, no longer coming from within, but controlled from the outside. We are raised to believe that our behaviors are reactions to others behaviors, and that our environment dictates appropriate actions and punishes inappropriate ones. Suddenly, we are not experiencing life, we are merely reacting to others, and behaving accordingly. Some of these reactionary behaviors, called "Defense mechanisms", are destructive ways in which we attack the experience of oneself, or of another, in order to validate personal action and return to
Kant states, “is that is that people are rational and moral agents who can each determine right and wrong for ourselves… if the state does that for us, it denies us the respect due our autonomy and it also destroys our capacity to act moral…” This could be looked that since the state decides what is moral and what isn’t we act immoral to prove that we can beat the system. So no matter what the law is each person has certain fundamental interests that must be under the individual's exclusive control and immune from state