Acting Freely Freedom And Self Define Freedom I

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Acting Freely Freedom And Self Define Freedom I

We looked at “Freedom” this week, but as the term ends, it is always a good idea to try to tie together different ideas in order to see the coherency.

While you are writing, please do not use the textbook or any outside materials. You can mention things in the textbook, but you will not have time to look them up. The paper you write is intended to give you the opportunity to express your philosophical viewpoints.

Please take a few minutes to read through the two choices for the first part, to choose one of them, to figure out your views, and to scribble down a skeleton outline for an argumentative essay. You will be trying to prove that your view is the best one.

Make sure you include:

  1. An introductory paragraph with a clear thesis statement,
  2. At least two evidentiary paragraphs, each offering supporting points,
  3. A brief summary of the opposition’s main point and a refutation of it, and
  4. A summarizing conclusion.

After you have answered either Question B in Part 1, go to Part 2 and answer the single question there as well.

PART 1

In a well-developed short essay, address the prompt for the choice below:

Question B

Freedom and Self. Define freedom in your own terms, specifically outlining those aspects of yourself that you consider the basis of your own conception of “acting freely.”

An idea we were left with from the textbook is that people are so largely influenced by both nature and nurture that it is difficult to make any sort of decision which has not already been affected by both internal and external influences; our “self identities” are not a creation of own but largely the product of biology and relationships. But, choosing to “act freely” implies that we are choosing freely, without influences affecting our choices.

Think back to our discussion of the “essential self” in Week 4 as you address the following questions. To what extent does your conception of “acting freely” include playing roles and interacting with other people? To what extent do other people limit your freedom? How can your “essential self” be free choose to “act freely” while living in a world in which you are bound by obligations to various kinds of other people? Under which conditions would you be confident to declare that you had freely chosen a “free act”?

PART 2

In no more than one or two paragraphs, answer the following:

As you reflect on your work and your learning in this class, what has been the most important skill you have mastered, insight you have secured, or knowledge you have gained? With respect to the skill, insight, or knowledge you have identified, why is that thing important to you and in what ways, and to what ends will you be able to use it later on?