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.