Since I haven’t even been watching anime lately(save for gunbuster) I figure I should update on the less mainstream reason any visitor comes here. I’m about to leave for a week long ski-trip with my class as a final hurrah before we graduate and go on to better and brighter futures.

I recently overheard a discussion on the matters of free-will vs. determinism, and was too bashful to enter the discourse. As it turns out I’m rather bashful of speaking in public on things that are important to me or pertain to my interests. So I figured I would talk about it here.

Determinism(particularly Causal Determinism) states that “future events are necessitated by past and present events combined with the laws of nature”(1). This means that somehow everything that has led up to this exact moment can be used somehow to predict the future. This completely nullifies the concept of free-will. How can I choose what to eat for lunch if it has already been decided?

Free-will on the other hand states that we have choices all around us and as Sartre put it “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. ” We make choices everyday i.e. whether or not I choose to breath right now is entirely up to me. Thats not to say that outside obligations don’t matter(would your kind dear old mother want you to stop breathing?), but in the end it is my choice whether or not i live or die(at least part of the time).

This entire argument can’t be proven empirically if the mind is a separate non-physical being. If the mind is entirely belonging to the physical brain then the laws of nature apply to the mind. If the laws of nature apply to the mind, then the future of any individual can be predicted, and free will is nullified. If, however, the mind is pertaining to the soul which is a part of the non-physical world, then determinism must be ruled out. If the laws of nature do not apply to the non-physical world, then the mind or soul or spirit is free to think or act or choose as it pleases.

Source: (1)=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism

The next post will be how all this applies to theological determinism.