The Reality Of Choice

The term philosophy encompasses various meanings and raises

many questions for example, it seeks to explore the true meaning of reality,

truth, values, justice and beauty. ( Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia, 240 ).

There are many terms used by philosophers that are often interpreted

differently by other philosophers . Free will is an example as well as an

important debatable issue. Some philosophers view free will as non existent

, while others argue that it really exists and I strongly agree with the

latter . Every philosopher view the world according to his own culture and

religion and that's why each of them created different hypothesis and

theories . Some argue that the environment plays a major role in shaping

a person's personality and therefore is held responsible for all his

actions . Others claim that nature in itself has the upper hand with regard

to the actions of human beings. While Blatchford stressed that predicting a

person's actions proves the non existence of free will . ( 105 ) However,

Stace contrverted that there are both free and unfree will acts (112) but

I disapprove with all the previous theories because my religious upbringing

allows me to believe that free will determines our destiny.

Philosophers like Mill believe that a person's

environment is the major shaper of his character . He believes that

everything around the person affects his personality in some way or another

and thereby directing his actions to reach a certain goal previously

identified for him. He believes that a person has little power over forming

his own character , since his character is formed by the circumstances

surrounding him and since one of these circumstances is his desire to

change . This desire is awakened when the person experiences painful

consequences associated with his previous character ( Mill , 477: 481) .

Mill also states that " A person feels morally free who feels that his

habits or his temptations are not his masters , but he theirs ; " ( Mill,

480) .Free will is the ability of deciding freely what to do without fearing

anything or being influenced by a habit , a temptation ,an earlier

experience or tendency. For example , I know two twins who come from a very

religious and conservative family they were both brought up properly and

lived in the same environment . One of them chose to conform with her

family values and religious beliefs, while the other rebelled against those

beliefs . She doesn't pray , she smokes, drinks alcohol and pays no

attention to her family values . This example shows that any person

possesses free will and that the environment influences the personality ,

but doesn't determine his fate or decisions .

Similarly, D'holbach claims that nature has the upper

hand with regard to a person's choices and that no one can deviate from the

path drawn for him . He states that a person's actions are reactions to

forces implied upon him from outside objects , inside motivation or ideas.

This is why his actions are never free they're always influenced by nature

either internally or externally . Even when he doesn't act according to

those forces it is probably because a new motive or idea arose and thus a

new force was created that directed his will in another path and preventing

the former action from happening . (D'holbach, 470:472) . This theory states

that nature decides for us and we are part of nature then we decide for

ourselves . When we act with regard to our motivations or sets of ideas ,

then we are choosing to act this way because those forces directing us are

coming from inside us . Thus free will does exist , because in any

situation there are always more than one path and we always end up choosing

only one. This chose we make is infact our soul and our whole- being.

According to Blatchford , free will does exit but

it is affected by both heredity and the environment . Blatchford states that

if the will is free and not affected by anything then blaming a person for

any of his actions is meaningless since the will is separate from that

person as it is free and acts as it wishes . Blatchford denotes heredity

by the temperament of the person and denotes that the effect of the

environment by training . Thus to him a person is affected by his emotions

, ideas , intelligence , mood , etc. as well as by his surroundings and

emotions . He adds that when a person hesitates to make a decision it is

because there