Blog #11: Coexistence of Determinism and Freewill (Essay # 3 - Final Draft With MLA Citations)

Amy Guan
ENGL 101-0768
Dr.Vasileiou
Essay #1 (Final Draft)
December 03, 2012

The Coexistence of Determinism and Freewill

            Our society should not eliminate crimes or threats without ethical considerations like in the society of the movie Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg. In the society of Minority Report, criminals were arrested for crimes that weren’t even committed yet. The society was deterministic, considering no existence of freewill but predetermined crimes. If we were to eliminate crimes and threats without ethical considerations like the society of the Minority Report, we would be violating the existence of freewill, privacy, and freedom that all human beings value.

            Determinism is the belief that everything in this world such as a person’s fate is already assigned. On the other hand, freewill is the ability to make choices which may alter the situation and fate of a person. In this case, the society of the Minority Report falls into determinism. Three “Precogs” are able to determine crimes that will happen before it is actually committed. Officers are able to arrest criminals before the crime is committed and lock them up for committing “precrime” (Spielberg). Their society no longer believes in freewill in which a person has a choice to alter their situation because all crimes are already determined by the three Precogs. It seems that if a society falls into determinism there can be no freewill because whether or not a person commits a crime is already predetermined. Then it may seem necessary to eliminate crimes and threats without ethical considerations.

            This is not true, if determinism exists, freewill need to exist as well and ethical considerations should be taken into account. Determinism and freewill can not only coexist, but they also share a symbiotic relationship. According to the article “Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report” by Michael Huemer, without determinism “our actions [will not be] determined by antecedent causes, these actions would merely be random occurrences,” indicating that our actions or choices that we make are just random like rolling a dice where no one can determine that it would land on a two (Schneider 107). So in order for a person to commit a crime, it will only be by pure random chances, there will be no choices we can make, no freewill. Both freewill and determinism needs to coexist in order to have an aftermath. Just like choosing what cards to display when playing a card game of Uno to create the cause and effect phenomena which can determines whether the person wins or loses.  Without determinism an event can’t happen without causes; while without freewill, there will only be random occurrences; and no matter what choices we make it would not matter.  So if we were to remove dangers like the society Minority Report did, it would not make us free because society would be stripped of freewill to make choices when it actually coexisted with determinism. To be stripped off of freewill, we would no longer be humans but robots in a deterministic society. In order to be free, determinism and freewill must coexist. Without freewill, there will be no determinism; and vice versa. Therefore, if we have determinism, we must also have freewill, and ethical considerations will be required to protect our freewill.

            Privacy is the main ethical consideration a society should have. According to The Constitution of the United States of America, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…” no matter what (Patterson 643). But in the society of the Minority Report, people’s rights to privacy are highly violated. The three Precogs are able to see the crime scenes, without the crimes having taken place yet. If our society finds a similar way to eliminate or reduce crimes by violating people’s privacy, it would be unethical to do so. Without privacy, people lose a sense of security which limits their freedom. If their freedom were to be limited, their freewill is also limited. Because then they cannot choose to express themselves naturally, but only restrictedly. So to protect freedom, a person’s privacy and freewill shall not be violated in such way.

            If our society is able to eliminate or reduce any sort of crimes, threats, or terrorism, the protection of privacy should considered in order to secure our freewill. Even in any deterministic situation or deterministic society like from the movie Minority Report, freewill coexists with determinism. John Anderson was able to choose not to shoot Leo Crow even though the three Precogs predicted he would shoot Leo Crow. Even in a deterministic society of the Minority Report, freewill coexists. And it is true according to Michael Huemer that without freewill there will not be determinism. So in order to have determinism, freewill and determinism must coexist. The choices we make are the causes to any determined situation or fate. And therefore, our freewill should be protected by societal rights by protecting our privacy to encourage a sense of security to withhold our freedom.

Work Cited:

Patterson, Thomas. We the People. 9th ed. New York, NY, United States: McGraw-Hill , 2011.

Print.

Schneider, Susan, and . Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence.

Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.

Spielberg, Steven, dir. Minority Report. 2012. Film. 19 Nov 2012.

Blog #10: Coexistence of Determinism and Freewill (Essay # 3 - Final Draft Without MLA Citations)

Amy Guan
ENGL 101-0768
Dr.Vasileiou
Essay #1 (Final Draft)
December 03, 2012

The Coexistence of Determinism and Freewill

            Our society should not eliminate crimes or threats without ethical considerations like in the society of the movie Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg. In the society of Minority Report, criminals were arrested for crimes that weren’t even committed yet. The society was deterministic, considering no existence of freewill but predetermined crimes. If we were to eliminate crimes and threats without ethical considerations like the society of the Minority Report, we would be violating the existence of freewill, privacy, and freedom that all human beings value.

            Determinism is the belief that everything in this world such as a person’s fate is already assigned. On the other hand, freewill is the ability to make choices which may alter the situation and fate of a person. In this case, the society of the Minority Report falls into determinism. Three “Precogs” are able to determine crimes that will happen before it is actually committed. Officers are able to arrest criminals before the crime is committed and lock them up for committing “precrime.” Their society no longer believes in freewill in which a person has a choice to alter their situation because all crimes are already determined by the three Precogs. It seems that if a society falls into determinism there can be no freewill because whether or not a person commits a crime is already predetermined. Then it may seem necessary to eliminate crimes and threats without ethical considerations.

            This is not true, if determinism exists, freewill need to exist as well and ethical considerations should be taken into account. Determinism and freewill can not only coexist, but they also share a symbiotic relationship. According to the article “Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report” by Michael Huemer, without determinism “our actions [will not be] determined by antecedent causes, these actions would merely be random occurrences,” indicating that our actions or choices that we make are just random like rolling a dice where no one can determine that it would land on a two . So in order for a person to commit a crime, it will only be by pure random chances, there will be no choices we can make, no freewill. Both freewill and determinism needs to coexist in order to have an aftermath. Just like choosing what cards to display when playing a card game of Uno to create the cause and effect phenomena which can determines whether the person wins or loses.  Without determinism an event can’t happen without causes; while without freewill, there will only be random occurrences; and no matter what choices we make it would not matter.  So if we were to remove dangers like the society Minority Report did, it would not make us free because society would be stripped of freewill to make choices when it actually coexisted with determinism. To be stripped off of freewill, we would no longer be humans but robots in a deterministic society. In order to be free, determinism and freewill must coexist. Without freewill, there will be no determinism; and vice versa. Therefore, if we have determinism, we must also have freewill, and ethical considerations will be required to protect our freewill.

            Privacy is the main ethical consideration a society should have. According to The Constitution of the United States of America, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…” no matter what . But in the society of the Minority Report, people’s rights to privacy are highly violated. The three Precogs are able to see the crime scenes, without the crimes having taken place yet. If our society finds a similar way to eliminate or reduce crimes by violating people’s privacy, it would be unethical to do so. Without privacy, people lose a sense of security which limits their freedom. If their freedom were to be limited, their freewill is also limited. Because then they cannot choose to express themselves naturally, but only restrictedly. So to protect freedom, a person’s privacy and freewill shall not be violated in such way.

            If our society is able to eliminate or reduce any sort of crimes, threats, or terrorism, the protection of privacy should considered in order to secure our freewill. Even in any deterministic situation or deterministic society like from the movie Minority Report, freewill coexists with determinism. John Anderson was able to choose not to shoot Leo Crow even though the three Precogs predicted he would shoot Leo Crow. Even in a deterministic society of the Minority Report, freewill coexists. And it is true according to Michael Huemer that without freewill there will not be determinism. So in order to have determinism, freewill and determinism must coexist. The choices we make are the causes to any determined situation or fate. And therefore, our freewill should be protected by societal rights by protecting our privacy to encourage a sense of security to withhold our freedom.

Blog # 9: (Essay #3 - First Draft)

Our society should not eliminate crimes or threats without ethical considerations like in the society of the movie Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg. In the society of Minority Report, criminals were arrested for crimes that weren’t even committed yet. The society was deterministic, considering no existence of freewill but predetermined crimes. If we were to eliminate crimes and threats without ethical considerations like the society of the Minority Report, we would be violating the existence of freewill and privacy that all conscious living beings have.

            Determinism is the belief that everything in this world such as a person’s fate is already determined by God or some other of natural laws. On the other hand, freewill is the ability to make choices which may alter their situation and fate. In this case, the movie Minority Report falls into determinism. Three “Precogs” are able to determine crimes that will happen before it is actually committed. Officers are able to arrest criminals before the crime is committed and lock them up for committing precrime. Their society no longer believes in freewill in which a person has a choice to alter their situation because all crimes are already determined by the three Precogs. It seems that if a society falls into determinism there can be no freewill because whether or not a person commits a crime is already determined. Then it is necessary to eliminate crimes and threats without ethical considerations.

            This is not true, if determinism exists, freewill can exist as well and ethical considerations would be taken into account. According to the article “Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report” by Michael Huemer, determinism and freewill can not only coexist, but they also share a symbiotic relationship. According to Huemer, without determinism “our actions [will not be] determined by antecedent causes, these actions would merely be random occurrences (107),” just like rolling a dice. It is a person’s freewill or choice that they make that create the cause and effect phenomena of determinism like choosing what cards to display when playing poker.  Without determinism, there will only be random occurrence, and no matter what we do with our freewill it would not matter. This would not make us free, but rather not free. So in order to be free, determinism and freewill must coexist. Without determinism, there will be no freewill; and vice versa. Therefore, if we have freewill, we must also have determinism and ethical considerations will be required to protect our freewill.

            Privacy is the main ethical consideration a society should have. According to The Constitution of the United States of America, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…(643)” no matter what. But in the society of the Minority Report, people’s rights to privacy are highly violated. The three Precogs are able to see the scenes before, during and after the crime scene, without the crime having taken place yet. If our society finds a similar way to eliminate or reduce crimes by violating people’s privacy, it would be unethical to do so. Without privacy, people lose a sense of security and freedom. So to protect our freedom, our privacy shall not be violated in such way.

            If our society is able to eliminate or reduce any sort of crimes, threats, or terrorism, our privacy and other ethical means shall be considered to protect our freewill. Even in any deterministic situation or deterministic society like from the movie Minority Report, freewill coexists with determinism. John Anderson was able to choose not to shoot Leo Crow even though the three Precogs predicted he would shoot Leo Crow. Even in a deterministic society of the Minority Report, freewill coexists. And it is true according to Michael Huemer that without determinism, there will not be freewill. So in order to have freewill, determinism and freewill must coexist. Determinism is the cause and effect of the choices we make from practicing our freewill. And therefore, our freewill should be protected by societal rights by protecting our privacy to encourage a sense of security to withhold our freedom.

Blog # 8: Freewill & Determinism Crosses Over

  The main issues the movie Minority Report and the play Oedipus the King touches on is freewill and determinism. Freewill is when a person has a choice to alter their situation. Determinism is the belief that everything in this world is already determined by God or some kind of natural laws. It is highly believed that with determinism, there cannot be freewill; or vice versa. Like in the play Oedipus the King, the fate of Oedipus was determined by a higher force, the gods. Oedipus did not believe he would be that type of person to marry his mother and kill his father. But unfortunately that was what happened to Oedipus; what the blind old prophet said was true. This may seem like Oedipus had no freewill, and his fate was irreversible and was already determined. But this is not true. Without freewill, Oedipus cannot have feelings. Emotions are what give people freewill. Everyone who feels have freewill. For example, we are able to choose to eat or not to eat depending if we feel like it, even if food is already presented in front of us. But for another living thing such as a flower, cannot choose to make glucose or not when healthy soil, water, carbon dioxide and the sunlight is presented to them; because a flower have no emotions. Just like John Anderson, he was determined by three precogs that he will kill Leo Crow, a man he doesn’t even know. It was all pre-determined by all three precogs that John Anderson will kill this man. It made no sense to any viewers just as it didn’t make sense to John Anderson. How can anyone kill someone they don’t even know? Turns out John Anderson was so determined to kill Leo Crow because Leo was the man who seemingly appears to have kidnapped and murdered John’s son. John’s anger took over him, he pulled out the gun and was ready to shoot Leo. But in the end, John managed to calm down and was determined to take his fate in his own hand, he did not kill Leo.  Although situations of Oedipus and John is different; that Oedipus did marry his mother and kill his father, while John did not kill Leo Crow; determinism will never be a hundred percent correct. Meanwhile, we can never have a hundred percent control of our fate. In  our lives, there are things that can be predetermined like how oil doesn’t mix with water or how Oedipus is fated to marry his own mother and murder his father. While there are also things we have freewill to do, like genetic engineering with our crops to turn them into the sweetest corns or how John Anderson can choose to override his fate and not kill the man he was determined to kill. Therefore, determinism and freewill crosses over. There are things that are predetermined, while there are things we have freewill alter our situations.

Blog # 7: The Allegory of The Cave in Coca Cola

There was a time in history in which people lived in an illusion of the benefits that the original Coca-Cola brought to them. Coca-Cola was originally made by John Pemberton with cocaine and wine called "French Wine Coca" claiming that the product help people think more clearly. Then in 1886 Pemberton changed the formula since the amount of alcohol and cocaine in the French Wine Coca was prohibited. Pemberton then remade the drink naming it today's "Coca-Cola" claiming it helps cure "headaches and upset stomachs." The Coca-Cola drinks became popular due to its claim to help reduce pain. Even when Coca-Cola is discovered to not have any effects on helping reduce any headaches or upset stomachs, it is still remain as today's popular soft drink.

Source Links:

• http://intelicus.com/the-history-of-coca-cola/
• http://www.w-h-a.org/index.cfm/spKey/archive/spId/C1F73447-A263-1A06-6BB5B3A2340060E1.html

Blog #6: Freewill or Destiny?

Oedipus the King have the freewill to change his fate. From the very beginning, Oedipus has already known about his destiny that the gods planned for him. He tried to run away from it and avoid it in many ways he can, but he did not try hard enough. Oedipus was told by the prophet of what will happen to him. Oedipus is destined to murder his father, King Laius and marry his mother, Queen Teiresias. He knew what he was destined to do. Yet, he did not try hard enough to avoid it. If he knew he was going to murder his father, he should had avoid murdering anyone at all. If he knew he was going to marry his mother, he should have never married or have children with a woman that is older than him. There are many rules he could have created for himself inorder to avoid the curse that is placed on him, but he did not. Oedipus is too full of himself. Oedipus could have avoided his god-assigned destiny. When he met his father unknowningly, he shouldn't have murdered him. He could have given the man a good beating instead of taking away the man's life. From the moment Oedipus murdered a man, he had already chose his destiny over his freewill.

Blog #5: Underneath the Utopian Mask of Gattaca (Final Draft)

Amy Guan
ENGL 101-0768
Dr.Vasileiou
Essay #1 (Final Draft)
October 15, 2012

Underneath the Utopian Mask of Gattaca

           Imagine a world where humans are genetically engineered to be perfectly built; tall enough, slim enough, highly intelligent, and free of diseases. Welcome to Gattaca, a movie directed by Andrew Niccol in 1997. Gattaca is a futuristic society highly populated with genetically engineered people. The increasing population of genetically engineered people helped built Gattaca under a utopian mask due to great advancements in sciences. When Gattaca is compared with today’s society, Gattaca seems to fit even more tightly with its utopian mask. But under this mask lays the solid and naked truth. Gattaca is no utopia because there is discrimination in the society which causes people to become suicidal. In general, utopia does not exist in Gattaca since it never existed in the past before.

The improvements of quality of life in the society of Gattaca gave it a utopian image. Most newborns in Gattaca are genetically engineered to be the best possible combination of their parents’ genes. The success of genetic engineering was to bring humans to a utopia. The generation of Valids are engineered to live long lives and to be highly intelligent to form a more efficient and successful society. If we were to compare today’s society to the society of Gattaca, Gattaca may seem to be more ideal. Society today are characterized by many world  issues such as global warming problems in which people are unable to come together to successfully prevent or slow down. Other reasons would be deaths from diseases and human conflicts such as the collapse of the Twin Towers which lead to war in Iraq. With a future like Gattaca, many people in the societies of the past may not see that Gattaca is an illusion of a utopia and overlook the flaw of Gattaca; which have with its small populations of In-Valids genetically discriminated. Genetically engineered human beings were able to advance sciences to such a level that it provided society with environmental-friendly technologies and transportations. The lives of Gattaca's population in general increased and diseases are terminated when in compared with today's society. Therefore, this is how Gattaca society received its utopian mask by being able to solve many problems that previous long lines of naturally-born generations could not.

Instead of a utopia, Gattaca is actually a dystopia. One reason that makes Gattaca a dystopia is that the In-Valids, are genetically discriminated. The first few seconds of a newborn’s life, the doctors would have his DNA tested to determine the newborn’s social status in the society. No matter how hard In-Valids such as the main character Vincent Anton Freeman works for, his identity will only get him so far as menial jobs like being a janitor because his DNA test say he will live up to only 30.2 years and have 99 percent probability of have a mal-heart condition. When he was agreed to receive an interview at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, he did not receive an actual interview, but a blood test to determine his genetic quality which was labeled as an In-Valid. The discrimination of the In-Valids makes Gattaca not a utopia. A utopia has to be an ideal and perfect place for all people within a society. In-Valids are part of the society of Gattaca, but it was not an ideal nor perfect place for Vincent that he was willing to fraud his identity by becoming a “borrowed-ladder” to escape Earth to the moon of Saturn. Even for Valids such as Jerome Eugene Morrow, Gattaca was neither an ideal nor a perfect place for him. Jerome was born with such “gifted” genes that he was expected to always win first place in national swimming races, not second place. Gattaca is no utopia because of the existence of genetic discrimination in the society.

Another reason why Gattaca is actually a dystopia is that both superiors and inferiors of the society are suicidal. Vincent has a younger brother Anton who is genetically engineered. The parents only felt the younger brother Anton was most fit for the father’s name because the younger brother was more superior since he was genetically engineered. During the last “Chicken” swimming race Vincent had with Anton; Anton asked how Vincent managed to win the last two races. Vincent told him that the only reason why he managed to win was because he “never saved anything for the swim-back.” Vincent became suicidal even before and after he successfully becomes the most elite in the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation because he didn’t plan to head back to Earth after the traveling to Saturn’s moon. On the other hand, Jerome was also suicidal; he threw himself in front of a car becoming paralyzed from waist-down and later suicided by burning himself after Vincent left to space travel to the moon. Gattaca society made both an In-Valid and Valid suicidal. This indicates that Gattaca is not a utopia for In-Valids or Valids since both Vincent and Jerome had become suicidal due to the pressure of genetic discrimination.

In general, utopia does not and cannot exist. From George J. Annas’ essay The Man on the Moon concludes that one thing that characterizes humanity is that humans are always at war with each other. Humans put themselves in groups and label other groups as the “others.” They tend to “justify killing the ‘other’ in the name of God or country a defining human trait throughout” holy wars such as the Crusades in which Christians believed it was right to kill the Muslims, the nonbelievers to recapture Jerusalem. And even throughout unholy wars such as the World War II where Germany discriminated Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs as “subhumans” to be put in concentration camps under cruel hospitality and unjust experiments. They say history repeats itself, and that’s what happened and will happen; all the different wars in different millennium centers around conflicts between groups that label one another as superiors or inferiors. There will always be conflicts between groups since humans discriminate one another and forget entirely that humans rights applies to all humans, not just people within its groups, religions, or countries. This is why any societies even Gattaca will never meet the utopian standard of life because what makes people humans is not perfection in which genetic engineering can give us, but the imperfections of who we naturally are.

Gattaca may seem like a utopia compared with today's society. But it is not a utopia because it does not live up with the definition that utopia is an ideal and perfect place. Both main characters Vincent and Jerome attempted several times of suicide due to genetic discrimination in their society. The past have been symbolized with wars as George J. Annas sees it in his essay, The Man on the Moon. The Cold War was the transition from holy wars to unholy wars in which people began to “worship science as society’s new religion.” The Cold War was a race to the Moon just like Gattaca Aerospace Corporation was a race to Titan, Saturn’s moon. But for Vincent and Jerome, the race to Saturn’s moon was a race out of a dystopia, Gattaca.