Undergraduate /
'Studying philosophy' -Brown Essay - Inspiration [4]
Hello
I would really appreciate it if you could have a look through this essay!
Tell us about an intellectual experience, project, class, or book that has influenced or inspired you.
Studying Philosophy as part of the IB Diploma has inspired me to deliberate on many seemingly mundane issues that I had never given much thought to previously. In fact, I would sometimes be so bewildered after Philosophy lessons that I would start questioning just about everything around me.
Once, I even caught myself pondering the philosophical importance of a junk mail caption. 'YOUR FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS'. I encountered this phrase - spelled out in large red letters ï in a leaflet promoting higher education. At face value, this statement was clearly meant to convey the importance of choosing whether or not to pursue higher education. The underlying insinuation of free will, however, prompted me to reflect further on this issue ï do I really have the freedom to choose my path in life, or is my future pre-determined? Is it really me who is making the choice, or am I a mere instrument of causality?
During my Philosophy studies, I became fascinated with the contrasting views on this subject, as free will is something that most of us naturally take for granted. It comes to us so naturally to believe that what we do is out of free choice, our decisions instinctively feel voluntary, so that it seems nearly impossible to think that our actions - even more so spontaneous ones - are somehow part of a causal chain of events and cannot but take place.
What I mean is, when you reach for the chocolate bar or the packet of chips, you probably do not tend to think to yourself: 'Did I decide that I want to eat this, or was I pre-determined to want it?' Maybe it would not matter to you who or what decided that you should crave something right now ï either way, you just want it. But when you do think about it, what if you are no different from a computer ï simply carrying out tasks, all of which you have been pre-programmed to do? Does this mean that your life is inauthentic and perhaps even meaningless?
For now, I am not reaching for the gun just yet: I am betting everything on the hopeful probability that I am at least partially free. However, having been defined by forces beyond me, it is a matter of heart that this causation should be reciprocal - I want to make the world as much as the world makes me. I have the natural curiosity of a philosopher but through my future studies, I hope to go a step further. For as Marx said, the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.
