Sunday, January 22, 2012
Response to Intro and Ch.1 of the Ten Theories of Human Nature:
In the introduction of the book it explains how one of the main questions that is studied in philosophy is "why are we here?" The book goes into how some believe that we are here from God and we were created in his image to follow his word and love him, but is that really a answer to why we're here? But if that is the case than we are suppose to look for him to answer our underlying question, but if he cannot and we are left in what he gives us than how is one suppose to find one's self? And if there is a God than why would he make us suffer while trying to learn what it is we are or what we are meant to do? But this isn't the only theory of human nature, Confucianism, created by Confucius (551-479 B.C) who taught that " you not able to serve man. How can you serve the spirits?" Confucius believed morality was the fabric of the universe, and if you think about that it's true. We do things that we believe are right or things we feel like we need to do. I never thought of it as it driving us to do the things that we do but than how do we have any free thought? If this conscious thinking that makes us act the way we do, than is it possiable that we don't have a destiny, that we make up the pathes of our own lives as we go?
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I would agree that conscious thought does determine, through the choices it results in us making, the paths of our lives. However, I do not necessarily agree that this negates the concept of destiny/fate (or, in a more secular sense, pre-determined sequences of events). Could one not argue that, either by divine engineering or by genetic predisposition, one's choices are already made? By this I mean that each person, according to their nature, will under a certain set of circumstances make one, and only one, choice. This is in opposition to the concept of free will; however, in practical terms it makes no difference. As no one knows for certain what choice they are predisposed to make, they have to make the choice as if by their own free will. In the end, there is only one of the available choices that they are capable of making, but prior to making said choice they do not know which it is.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I also posted this on my own blog if you'd rather read it there.