Philosophy Paper Example

What is Freedom

By the literal meaning, freedom refers to having the right to think, speak or act without getting restrained or hindered. Freedom of action on a philosophical perspective means the ability to be free from hindrances (Largen, 234). These restraints are not only external barriers to our actions but also internally from addictions or physical disabilities. Politically, it refers to having the right to speak, assemble, and the government restrictions on associations, organizations, and groups, for example, the media or religion. Such are examples of external freedom. My goal in this paper is to give a further discussion on the different features that relates to freedom which includes:

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Individuality-The freedom to create, develop and showcase the unique personality of an individual’s life story both in public and in private.

Protection against manipulation- Captured from the symbolic manipulation where one uses other people as a means of actualizing their needs. It is a standard feature with money matters where one pays others to make their ends meet.

Freedom to make and live in the world-The society is an artifact where we are born not only to reside in but also to change it to our desires. It is a collaborative task to limit the abuse that can result from the actions.

In his article titled The Two Concepts of Liberty, Isaiah Berlin says that ‘negative freedom,' is the lack of any constraints either internal or external. There is also another form of liberty he refers to as ‘positive freedom’ which raises an earlier question about the free will. One can have the freedom to act; that is being free of constraints even if the free will gets determined by the laws of nature.

What is Determinism

Determinism, on the other hand, is a philosophical idea that every occurrence or the state of affairs, which includes every person’s action or decision, is an inevitable and necessary outcome of a previous state of affairs (O'Grady, 16). On a stricter note, determinism should be differentiated from pre-determinism which is the notion that the entire history, as well as current and future events, is determined at the origins of the universe.

Also, neither should it be confused with determination (O'Grady, 17), which dictates that the previous events can determine events including the human activities without getting pre-determined back to the time before the individual’s birth or during the origins of the universe

What is Consciousness

Consciousness is the natural state when one is awake, and the mind is aware of the surroundings. It comprises of four aspects namely feeling, intuiting, sensing, and thinking (Semir, 121). The four elements are inextricably co-joined in the mind and body it is almost impossible to separate them.

Consciousness enables living things to respond to situations grasped when whole and not just the features or parts that can relate to rules and regulations of computation. Its evolutionary advantage is that the organism can formulate a response to or determine the factors it is facing. This situation relates to characters that can engage with natural laws or laws of computation but which have particular features of whole combinations.

To begin with is subjectivity. It is a conscious experience which is suffered by a conscious subject. These experiences get different from worldly objective features which are readily available for observation by anybody in a position to see them. They are felt only by the subject. Therefore, they significantly contribute to how the subject reacts to the world.

The second is qualia whereby conscious experiences do have features that exceed the physical properties that seem to cause them. A good example is the feel of pain or the look of colors. Human beings can sense color blue of the sky but the computer despite displaying blue on the screen, it does not experience what it is.

The last is unity whereby a conscious experience is described as unity by the subject experiencing many of these features all at once. This circumstance is particularly sensible in the case of visual experiences.

Free Will Definition

Free will can be referred to as common but mistaken in the layman’s sense that the adverb free gets to modify the concept will. Much clearly according to McCall (503), it is an indication of the elements of chance which is a primary requirement for the free will present in the determination of one’s self will itself. An agent is said to have free will if the person has the capacity coupled with the freedom to choose the course of action to take.

To cap it all, a study course in philosophy is necessary because apart from enhancing intellectual growth, it also prepares the graduate thoroughly for other careers based on the personal development acquired. The student gets the adequate skills necessary to add value to the face of their prospective employers. The thinking capacity helps in unveiling more about the world and how it works.

References

Largen, Kristin Johnston. "Freedom From And Freedom For: Luther's Concept Of Freedom For The Twenty-First Century." Dialog, vol 52, no. 3, 2013, pp. 232-243. Wiley-Blackwell, doi:10.1111/dial.12048.

Lee, Richard E. Determinism. 1st ed., Albany, the State University Of New York Press, 2010,

McCall, S. "The Supervenience Of Truth: Freewill And Omniscience." Analysis, vol 71, no. 3, 2011, pp. 501-506. Oxford University Press (OUP), doi:10.1093/analys/anr051

O'Grady, William. "Processing Determinism." Language Learning, vol 65, no. 1, 2015, pp. 6-32. Wiley-Blackwell, doi:10.1111/lang.12091.

Semir, Zeki. "The Visual Brain And It's Many Consciousnesses." Frontiers In Human Neuroscience, vol 2, 2008, Frontiers Media SA, doi:10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.008.