PhiloPsycho Freedom

So, after saying how I enjoy a factor of chance in my life, I would like to look at the opposite of chance: determinism.

Determinism is the belief that there are founding laws in every object, no matter the size. The bigger constructs' rules are made from the combined laws of the smaller constructs' that they are comprised of.

Now, let's apply this to human beings: As has been considered many times by many different philosophers, human free will is a complex can of worms. To start, we must consider the behaviour of neurons (we could go even smaller, but I don't think it's entirely necessary). Neurons are cells that either fire or they don't; it's an all-or-nothing reaction. Each neuron has its particular stimuli that it reacts to, and when that stimuli is presented with enough strength, the neuron fires. The outcome of this process is complicated somewhat by what is fired and which surrounding neurons pick up the message. Suppose we can thoroughly understand the relationship between the single neuron to the neighboring neurons, then the relationship between the neurons and the brain; the brain and behaviour of the individual; the individual to the group; etc.

As you can see, following that train of thought leads us to have little room for freedom of the individual, as we experience it. If there are these fundamental laws, we can do very little to resist, and even our resistance would be predetermined by our particular arrangement of neurons.