Why is it important to know that we are free and not pre-determined?

Question

we will be having a debate in our philosophy class about freedom and determination soon and my speech is about the necessity of knowing that we are free

can you please help me? please :)

thanks in advance

Answer 1

Would you be giving me credit for my idea(s)? Would the words,   "So according to a certain humming_rye following up on my homework question I so cleverly put up on yahoo answers, we need to be free because..." be uttered at any time of your well prepared speech?

I like getting all my credit; I really do.

Answer 2

So you take responsibility for yourself. That's what freedom is. The knowledge that YOU are the one in control and it's up to you. If you don't understand that you are free and take responsibility for yourself, than you will look toward other people (ie government) to take care of you and make decisions for you. Most people can't handle the responsibility that true freedom demands.

Answer 3

You are free to make choices in life. Like if you choose to be g*y then that is a choice you made and you will go to h**l for it.

Your ultimate fate is not pre-determined by a choice you ultimately made. So choose wisely and be a good and pure human being.

Answer 4

Because it is an intrinsic quality of the universe.

Causation and Determinism have to be to be redefined in light of relativity and quantum mechanics.

No longer can we state that all things can be reduced to causal relationships and thus determining an event can only have a value of probability.

Oh really thumbs down.

Its not important to know reality?

Well I think it is, but maybe thats just me.

Answer 5

Because if we weren't free, then the absurdity of it all would just hit us.  We identify ourselves with the choices we make.  If those choices are made for us, then our lives are just like a movie on a screen and we are just an audience before the age of interactive entertainment.

I'm not sure though about how to answer your question.  The way you phrased it, it seems pretty much that freedom is a given in the debate, and the only thing to debate about is whether it is important to know that we are free.

If that's the case, then I think such knowledge is necessary if we want to exercise that freedom.  There are people who are content to live their lives like driftwood and they just let the current take them wherever.  Knowing we are not driftwood, then we know that wherever we end up, it was because we chose to end up there, either by commission or by omission.  If we deny our freedom, then we are trying to escape accountability, and that can take you to very dangerous places.  Feel free to avoid that.

Answer 6

If we feel pre-determined we feel we have a sense of purpose, but if we feel we are not free then why are we exisitng.  You can agrue "because we have a purpose" but what if the purpose choosen for us is not the same purpose we chose for ourselves.  At that point we'd just exist, be numb to life.  And that numbness we'll miss out all the great moments that make life so much fun like falling in love, feeling an adreneline rush, seeing your newborn child, being passionate about somehting.  We need to feel that we have purpose but free enough to do as we will to get there.