FREE ACTION AND DETERMINED ACTION

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FREE ACTION AND DETERMINED ACTION

Introduction

Hello people! Today am going to share with us a very important topic in Ethics. The meaning of Free Action and Determined Action. What is the cause of one's action. This will urge us to always think before we make decisions.

Ethics is concerned with free action. That is, a voluntary action for which man is held responsible. A free action, which a man chooses to perform, and he could also choose not to perform. Man is free to choose what he wants, but he is not free not to choose since a refusal to choose is already a choice made. To refuse to choose is in fact one way of choosing. This is to justify that a man is responsible for an action performed (e.g. drunkenness) for he is responsible for freely making himself drunk when he could have avoided it by exercising self-control. The same is true of anger, adultery, fornication and stealing etc. Even when a habit has been formed, man is still free to stop it, though with difficulty but it is possible to do it.

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The view that man is not free, that his actions are determined by certain causes is known as determinism. Some people deny the freedom of man and see it as illusion. All human action are determined by certain causes. Therefore, they say every action can be explained in terms of cause and effect without any resource to freedom.

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These are various forms of Determinism
1. Metaphysical Determinism
2. Psychological Determinism
3. Theological Determinism
4. Economic Determinism
5. Fatalism Determinism

Metaphysical Determinism: Every action, every event is determined by the laws of nature and it can be traced to certain cause. Since man is part of nature he is part of the organic system of the universe and his actions cannot be isolated as if they were unconnected with or caused by other things. Pantheism: is part of metaphysics that views God, man and universe as the same thing. Everything in the universe is seen in man as its manifestation is not an isolated, autonomous being, but part of a whole; there can be no such thing as human freedom or free action. That is, all actions and events are seen as self-manifestation of God. It is God who acts, who manifests himself in all actions and events in universe.

Psychological Determinism: That all actions are determined by certain instinctive drives or impulses. Most of these drives were previously inhibited, eventually found outlets in various other ways and manifest themselves through our actions. That is human actions spring from the unconscious level of our being.

Theological Determinism: Is that God has decided in advance, the way man will live and all that he will do. He has predestined some people in advance to go to Heaven and other to go to Hell, and every man acts in accordance with the way he has been predestined. Calvin and Janson called it predestination.

Fatalism Determinism: it is the belief that whatever will happen will happen irrespective of whatever a man may think or do. That whatever happened was fated to happen and there is nothing man can do to prevent it from happening. All past events happened because they had been fated to happen, and all future events will happen because they are being fated.

Economic Determinism: It is Marxist theory. All human activities can be fully explained in terms of economic situation, that your economic position will determine your behavior i.e. poverty can take one to steal, even if he doesn’t want to do it.

Conclusion: The Argument of Emmanuel Kant
Emmanuel Kant has rightly pointed out that, the best proof that man is free is man’s moral experience, for if man were not free, if action were determined, how could he ever make mistake, why should anybody be praised, blamed, punished or rewarded foe doing anything since he could not done otherwise. The idea of trying to do anything, making effort to achieve anything would be meaningless if man’s action were determined.

In conclusion, I will like to throw this question for us (Steemians) community to discuss. The question is: Subscribe to the argument of the scholars that human beings are not free beings but certain factors or powers are determined for them. I will love to learn from our contributions. Please feel free to comment.

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You are all wonderful!
God bless You All!