Analysis of Thomas Nagel´s Free Will - 941 Words

Thomas Nagel covers the issues of the purpose of humanity in his piece, â€Å"Free Will†. There are several topics that Nagel covers as he starts out hopeful of the idea of free will itself. Free will defined by Merriam Webster as freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention. All our lives we are taught that we do things on our own accord and that we have the right to choose the things that happen to us. He gives the example of choosing between a peach and some cake. This, actually, is not a real example of free will, but rather personal preference that has been predetermined from our upbringing, the environment we are placed in and even and even genetics. I could choose the peach because I know that my predetermined genes will eventually make me into a diabetic so I want to stay as healthy as I can. That in itself does not give me a very wide scope of choices, but more or less narrows it. As he goes on, he explains that w e all want to think that we have â€Å"free will†. We want to think that we have our own choices and the ability to drive our own lives at our own expense. Yet, when it comes down to it, that is not the case at all. According to his take on it, nothing would be able to be predicted about the future if there was such a thing as free will. A simpler way to look at it is the discussion we had towards the very beginning of the course. We discussed how everything seems to come from something, so how can something comeShow MoreRelatedFunctionalism Of Sociology And Social Anthropology Essay3360 Words   |  14 PagesIN SOCIOLOGY In sociology and social anthropology the term functional analysis is used not only in the mathematical sense, where a function expresses a correspondence between two variables such that the second, or dependent, variable is said to be a function of the first, or the independent variable. 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Existentialism * is a philosophical term which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives. Existentialism asserts that â€Å"existence precedes essence,† which is in opposition to the classical doctrine that â€Å"essence precedes existence.† The claim â€Å"existence precedes essence† is a rejection of the idea that human nature has an end or goal. In this sense, humans are free to