Determinism theory states that all actionstaken by human beings mainly depend on the events that have happened before, but not the ‘free will’of an individual.
In philosophical terms, the theory is built upon a metaphysical assumption that an event which has not been causedisnot likely to happen.This dogma is augmented by the ideas of effective scientific discoveries of several theorists. In some instances,particular behaviors are observed, and taking control seems to support this line of thinking.
The notion that anyaction taken byhuman beings is the outcome of perviouseventshas beenexpounded by both naturalists and theists. Naturalistsbelieve that human beings form part of the machines that drive the world.
In summary, the main idea is that because human beings are part of the universe, their actions originate from events that happened before, which were caused by earlier events, and the list is endless. Since, man is part of this chainof events; it goes without saying that man is part of the causal factors.
Therefore, based on determinism theory, I might not have had any other thoughts than these that I am now having, have had in the past, and will have even in future. Basically, this means that whatever position that I have taken on this debate, it was caused to take.
Thus, if determinism is true, no one could know it is true since all positions are determined. I strongly disagree with this belief. Just like Skinner who views that that every human behavior is entirely controlled by hereditary and ecological factors. The same applies to human actions that are determined by both environmental factors and genetic make-up of the individual.
Some people criticize the theory of determinism. This can be compared to the subject of how Americans view drug addiction.The Federal Bureau of Narcotics believes that narcotics addiction is an action that squarely depends on the police control. They suggest that crime levels have increased because of drug addiction.
The proponents of this school of thought claim that crimes perpetuated by drug addicts are directly linked to narcotics; they also argue that before becoming addicts,many addicts were gangs. On the other hand,others people criticize this belief, and contend that addiction is a disease, or anything similar to it.Therefore,punishing the addicts is not the best solution.
They claim that most addicts engage in criminal activities to get money to purchase the narcotics and not the opposite. For most of our history, drug addiction has been considered a weakness of the will, an inability to control one’s desires. But now there is a growing consensus in the medical and treatment communities that addiction is a disease.
The relevance of determinism theory in this scenario is that it helps us to cement the belief that human actions or behavior have antecedent cause, an event having a previous cause and the events go up to infinitum.
On one hand causal Determinists contend that because of the laws of cause and effect, each and every event that occurs after a preceding event is determined. Thus, the decisions that human beings make are predetermined, hence there is no room to make a choice, or what they refer to as ‘free will’.
On the other hand, logical determinism believes that man’s actions or involvement in events is not predetermined.The future is independent of the present or past events.
In short, we can say that once the logic or justification of some belief is understood, a rational person is bound to accept the belief. Since many of us have abandoned our childhood belief in Santa Clause, I cannot choose to actually believe in Santa again. In real sense it means that human beings make rational choices about their beliefs especially after truth dawning on them.