My Story
When I was in 10th grade I had been riding a horse named
Eddie to prepare for a show, or competition. The day
before the show my instructor asked me if I wanted to
change horses to another named Gator. Since I had been
riding Eddie for the past couple of weeks I chose to stay
with him. Unfortunately, at the show Eddie freaked out
and fell on top of me when I went to get on. I was alright
the only part of me that was injured was my right knee.
This made me think about what would of happened if I
had chosen the other horse. Was I destined to just get
hurt that day or would Gator have been fine? Or even did I
really have a choice about what horse I rode or was the
already determined as well.
Eddie and I at the show
Fatalism
0 Fatalism defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
is a doctrine that events are fixed in advance so that
human beings are powerless to change them.
Determinism
0 Determinism is defined by the Merriam-Webster
Dictionary is a theory or doctrine that acts of the will,
occurrences in nature, or social or psychological
phenomena are causally determined by preceding
events or natural laws
The History of Fatalism
0 In ancient times people felt that they had limits on
their freedoms. They weren’t sure exactly why but
they contributed it to fate or a grater power.
0 In the Medieval Epoch, they thought the greater
power to be a God.
0 In the 17th century, in wake of new scientific
discoveries events were proven not to be based on
mysterious fates or Gods but on scientific underlays.
Religion and Fatalism
0 Hindus and Buddhists accept the idea of karma, which
is the idea that what happens in a person’s life is
determined by what they have done in their past.
0 Christianity’s idea of fatalism is called predestination.
Predestination is the idea that everything, including
history and a person’s life, as well as what happens
after death, is all determined by God.
Religion and Fatalism
0 “It’s God’s will” became a common statement to
explain tragedy for the Hebrews, such as when the
temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.
0 Many people were faced with problems of thinking,
“What is the point of behaving virtuously if the one’s
salvation is already determined by God’s grace?”
Determinism in History
0 Determinism was defined by Newton and other
scientists as the idea that every event was naturally
caused by pervious events and states plus the
universal laws of nature.
0 In the 18th century, most of America’s “founding
fathers” believed that God had created the universe
but didn’t intervene after that.
0 David Hume and the French Baron d’Holbach didn’t
believe in miracles and divine intervention at all.
Oedipus
0 The Ancient Greeks, believing in Fatalism, wrote the
play Oedipus Rex which was about a man who was
predetermined to kill his father and marry him
mother, then unknowingly did both.
0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXyek9Ddus4
(this is the shortened version of Oedipus basically).
David Hume
0 Hume believed that we had to have control over every
aspect of what we decide to do or not to do.
0 His arguments were mostly against there being a God
with control over everything that we did. He talked
about how the God would be full of guilt because of
making people do bad things or letting them make
bad decisions.
0 He believed that there was complete free will and that
that is how we make our decisions and do what we do.
My Opinion
0 I think now after doing some research that while we
are do make our own decisions there are some factors
that help to predetermine our fate.
0 I believe that every decision that we make has some of
our surroundings to help make it. I am not talking
about a God or an outside force literally determined
our every move, more that individual factors such as
something as small as weather or what horse you
have been riding can change your whole future.
My Opinion
0 I can’t say that my life is in a line that is written in
stone and I am just following around but who’s to say
for sure.
0 I chose to come to URI because an advisor suggested
it. What happens if I hadn’t gone to that advisor or
listened to her opinion? Would I be the person I am
now? These questions make me think there has to be
somewhat of fate or destiny that we may have because
every decision is influenced by other people and
outside encouragements.
Work Cited
0 "DeterminismAbout Our Definitions: All Forms of a Word (noun,
0
0
0
0
Verb, Etc.) Are Now Displayed on One Page." Merriam-Webster.
Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.
"FatalismAbout Our Definitions: All Forms of a Word (noun, Verb,
Etc.) Are Now Displayed on One Page." Merriam-Webster.
Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.
"Hume on Free Will." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). N.p.,
n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.
"Oedipus (Greek Mythology)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.
Solomon, Robert C. The Little Philosophy Book. New York: Oxford
UP, 2008. Print. Pages 62-67