"Minority Report" and "Oedipus the King" were both thought provoking texts that influenced the way I think about how our actions influence our lives. Belief in free will is to believe that we have control over what happens in our lives, whereas belief in determinism dictates that we have no control over our actions and that everything that occurs in our lives has been predetermined by factors that occured before we even existed. Due to the fact that we have no control over what has happened before we were alive some believe this proves we have no control over what happens going forward. It would seem to me that both texts are making conflicting arguments about humans and the role that they play in thier own lives.
"Oedipus the King" in my view made the argument for Hard Determinism. Even though as the reader I believed that Oedipus made foolish desicions that led to his downfall, the characters in the play felt that there was nothing that could have been done to change his fate. The future that Teirisius predicted came true word for word and by the end of the play it seemed to many that the Gods had played a cruel joke on Oedipus and that the very steps he took to prevent his cruel fate are what sealed it. In "Free Will and Determinism" the author Michael Huemer tells us that hard determinists believe we have zero control over our lives. That in order for us to have acted differently something would have had to be different at every previous moment stretching all the way back to the beginning of time. (pg. 105) This argument makes perfect sense in the play because it's very likely that Oedipus' father could have changed his son's fate by deciding to not to try to murder him or even his ancestors could have changed his fate by choosing to not place so much faith in the words of prophets or oracles thus changing the decision that Oedipus' father made. Determinism perfectly explains why no matter what Oedipus tried to do to change his fate he was doomed to the tragedy that would occur.
"Minority Report" left me with a much more optimistic view on the role that humans play in the course of their lives. While I feel that the movie certainly did not make an argument that humans have absolute control over their fates, by the end of the movie I was convinced that the decisions that we make are our own even when they are shaped by factors we have no control over. The moment when John Anderton decided against killing the man whom he had all reason to believe murdered his son was pivotal for me. Although the man still died because he killed himself, the prophecy fortold by the Precogs was proven wrong even though there was no minority report. John didn't kill the man he was predestined to kill and this caused a tidal wave of events that would change the world. I think "Minority Report" made an argument for Soft Determinism. Soft determinism is the belief that free will and determinism go hand in hand and we need both to practice true free will. If our actions were not determined by causes that came before us, than our actions would only be random occurrences and what is random is controlled by noone and we would be unable to claim free will. (Pg. 106 Huemer) John Andertons fate was dictated by the actions of people that came before him and decisions that he could never have hoped to know of, never mind hope to change. Yet the decisions that he made were still his, even though the situation he was in was brought about by factors he had no control over.
I found free will and determinism to be a pretty difficult subjects to grasp. As a United States citizen I have honestly always felt the world is at my fingertips and that I absolute control over my world and how I live in it. As a child growing up I always assumed that I could be anything that I could dream of and the only thing that shaped my life was me. As I read "Oedipus the King", watched "Minority Report" and struggled with "Free Will and Determinism" I have discovered that this is not completely true. While I refuse to believe in Hard Determinism because it's a belief that says I have no control over my life, it is easy to understand why people do believe in it. There are so many factors are out of our control from the moment we are born. We don't get to choose our parents, socio-economic background or even what personality traits we are born with. Our personalities and even our goals are shaped by the people who raise us and sometimes by the neighborhoods we grow up in. After a lot of contemplation I feel that humans are certainly equipped with free will, we just aren't quite as "Free" as we might believe we are. I'm left believing that determinism and our decisions both work together to shape our destinies.
