Outline
Intro:
The theory weighs heavy on my mind.
Body:
The idea that it can never be proven or disproven. The theory goes against chaos theory, which states that all natural systems are inherently unpredictable. Does the theory go against free will?
Conclusion:
Determinism says that there’s only one outcome based on all preceding events, but it doesn’t mean free will doesn’t exist. Determinism doesn’t mean you have no control over your actions because they’re predetermined, it means that the action you take in a situation is the only action you would’ve taken.
Draft 1
For a while now I’ve bounced the idea around in my head that the future is as fixed as the past. When I say I think the future is fixed and unchangeable, I’m not referring to fateism, which is the theological belief that god is the arbiter of the future. My beliefs align more with the deterministic school of thought, the idea that the future is determined by preceding events in a never-ending butterfly effect. Following this school of thought, every decision we make is already determined by preceding events, which does make sense to me as the human brain at its core functions as a computer. The brain consciously and unconsciously computes information that it’s given and makes a decision. There is no randomness in how we process information, therefore all of our decisions are based purely on preceding events. These preceding events can vary from someone punching you in the gut to the tiniest movements of chemicals in the brain, and these events themselves are dictated by preceding events.
One of the reasons why this idea weighs so heavily on my mind is because it can’t be proven or disproven. The theory states that there’s only one decision you’ll take in any given circumstance due to cause and effect, but that’s impossible to prove or disprove, because in the end you will take a single decision, which could be the only possible decision you could’ve made, or it could’ve been one of millions. This theory also goes against chaos theory, which states that all natural systems are inherently unpredictable due to the amount of variables present in natural systems, but then again fractals, a commonly used example of chaos theory, are famous for following patterns. The main reason this theory weighs heavily on my mind is the idea that it invalidates the idea of self-determinism. After stewing over this for a long time, I came to the conclusion that determinism doesn’t invalidate self-determinism because we still make decisions ourselves, these decisions are just the only decisions we would ever have made due to cause and effect. By determinism, I was always destined to forget my keys in my dorm room when I went to tennis practice that one day, but it was also my fault for forgetting them like a dope as well.
The theory of determinism no longer brings me a feeling of dread, as I’ve reconciled my beliefs in regard to the theory. Determinism says that there’s only one outcome based on all preceding events, but it doesn’t mean free will doesn’t exist. Determinism doesn’t mean you have no control over your actions because they’re predetermined, it means that the action you take in a situation is the only action you would’ve taken. After reconciling my beliefs, I’ve come to believe that the future is dictated by determinism, and it’s just as unchangeable as the past.
Draft 2
For a while now I’ve bounced the idea around in my head that the future is as fixed as the past. When I say I think the future is fixed and unchangeable, I’m not referring to fateism, which is the theological belief that god is the arbiter of the future. My beliefs align more with the deterministic school of thought, the idea that the future is determined by preceding events in a never-ending butterfly effect. Following this school of thought, every decision we make is already determined by preceding events, which does make sense to me as the human brain at its core functions as a computer. The brain consciously and unconsciously computes information that it’s given and makes a decision. There is no randomness in how we process information, therefore all of our decisions are based purely on preceding events. These preceding events can vary from someone punching you in the gut to the tiniest movements of chemicals in the brain, and these events themselves are dictated by preceding events.
One of the reasons why this idea weighs so heavily on my mind is because it can’t be proven or disproven. The theory states that there’s only one decision you’ll take in any given circumstance due to cause and effect, but that’s impossible to prove or disprove, because in the end you will take a single decision, which could be the only possible decision you could’ve made, or it could’ve been one of millions. This theory also goes against chaos theory, which states that all natural systems are inherently unpredictable due to the amount of variables present in natural systems, but then again fractals, a commonly used example of chaos theory, are famous for following patterns. The main reason this theory weighs heavily on my mind is the idea that it invalidates the idea of self-determinism. After stewing over this for a long time, I came to the conclusion that determinism doesn’t invalidate self-determinism because we still make decisions ourselves, these decisions are just the only decisions we would ever have made due to cause and effect. By determinism, I was always destined to forget my keys in my dorm room when I went to tennis practice that one day, but it was also my fault for forgetting them like a dope as well.
The theory of determinism no longer brings me a feeling of dread, as I’ve reconciled my beliefs in regard to the theory. Determinism says that there’s only one outcome based on all preceding events, but it doesn’t mean free will doesn’t exist. Determinism doesn’t mean you have no control over your actions because they’re predetermined, it means that the action you take in a situation is the only action you would’ve taken. After reconciling my beliefs, I’ve come to believe that the future is dictated by determinism, and it’s just as unchangeable as the past.
Peer Review Reflection
I got some good constructive criticism for my TIB essay. I expected more of a negative reaction to be honest, everyone else in my group told about a moral they learned that made them a better person, and I wrote about a controversial school of thought that contradicts free will. I was given some very good feedback on how to make my essay better: I should explain how I came to explore this theory, I should delete the part about chaos theory (which I understand it was an unnecessary tangent), and I should split this essay into multiple paragraphs. Nobody in my group said it but I feel like I should also cut out a lot of the circular writing, where I just elaborated on what determinism is a bunch of times. I think I ended up doing that because it’s hard to explain, and even after explaining it like ten times throughout the essay I still don’t think I got it across as precisely as I wanted to.
Final Draft
For a while now I’ve bounced the idea around in my head that the future is as fixed as the past. When I say I think the future is fixed and unchangeable, I’m not referring to fateism, which is the theological belief that god is the arbiter of the future. My beliefs align more with the deterministic school of thought, the idea that the future is determined by preceding events in a never-ending butterfly effect. Following this school of thought, every decision we make is already determined by preceding events, which does make sense to me as the human brain at its core functions as a computer. The brain consciously and unconsciously computes information that it’s given and makes a decision. There is no randomness in how we process information, therefore all of our decisions are based purely on preceding events. These preceding events can vary from someone punching you in the gut to the tiniest movements of chemicals in the brain, and these events themselves are dictated by preceding events.
The event that led to me discovering and examining this school of thought is somewhat lost on me, but I recall that I had just bombed a quiz in AP Literature and Composition. This got me thinking about alternative circumstances where I had studied more, when I came to the verdict that I wouldn’t have studied more because that’s just not something I would do. For some reason this realization that it was inevitable that I would bomb this quiz caused me to think about the nature of randomness, and if anything in the universe was truly random. After thinking about it for a bit, I thought no, there really isn’t true randomness in the universe. Everything down to the smallest particles has a set of rules that they follow, even if we don’t know them yet.
This realization shook me a bit, the realization that since nothing is random in the universe, then there’s only one way that history will play out due to the elimination of alternative outcomes for circumstances. I would stew over this dilemma in my AP Literature class while I probably should’ve been paying attention for my next quiz, while continuing to psyche myself out about this idea of determinism. I’d think “I need to just forget about this idea and move on,” and then two seconds later I’d think “It was pre-determined that I was going to tell myself to forget about it,” and I’d keep going in circles.
One of the reasons why this idea weighs so heavily on my mind is because it can’t be proven or disproven. The theory states that there’s only one decision you’ll take in any given circumstance due to cause and effect, but that’s impossible to prove or disprove, because in the end you will take a single decision, which could be the only possible decision you could’ve made, or it could’ve been one of millions.
The main reason this theory weighs heavily on my mind is the idea that it invalidates the idea of self-determinism. After stewing over this for a long time, I came to the conclusion that determinism doesn’t invalidate self-determinism because we still make decisions ourselves, these decisions are just the only decisions we would ever have made due to cause and effect. By determinism, I was always destined to forget my keys in my dorm room when I went to tennis practice that one day, but it was also my fault for forgetting them like a dope as well.
The theory of determinism no longer brings me a feeling of dread, as I’ve reconciled my beliefs in regard to the theory. Determinism says that there’s only one outcome based on all preceding events, but it doesn’t mean free will doesn’t exist. Determinism doesn’t mean you have no control over your actions because they’re predetermined, it means that the action you take in a situation is the only action you would’ve taken. After reconciling my beliefs, I’ve come to believe that the future could absolutely be dictated by determinism, and it’s just as unchangeable as the past.
