Fate & free will in life?

Question

What are the roles of fate and free will in Victor Frankenstein's life?

or in our own lives?

Thanks :)

Answer 1

Free will is a myth, but a necessary one.

Your behavior is the computational result of a combination of environmental and genetic influences, but you can't actually buy into determinism as a philosophy of life for, if you did, you could merely sit around all day, saying "I'm a determinist. I'm waiting to see what the universe has in store for me today." Because that belief in determinism itself becomes a cognitive factor.

So you need to believe in your ability to do things for yourself, even if the "you" is but an extremely complex physical animal brain, responding to its environment just like every other life form on earth.

Answer 2

I don't know about Frankenstein, but I don't think we can have free will. Free will is the ability to exercise your will - to choose what it is that you want. But this definition runs in to a big problem. If free will is the ability to do what you want to, then the question becomes "do you choose your wants?"

What is am trying to say is that "free will" only makes sense if it means the ability to choose our ends. But a choice of ends would require either a random choice independent of further ends or a choice made based on further ends. But those further ends (if chosen) would themselves require either yet further ends if they are not randomly chosen. This results in an infinite regress. The only way to end the regress is to say that people appear to randomly choose their ends (and this is the space free will works in) or to say that we have ends we do not choose. Since people always act for reasons (and not randomly) this rules out any space for a free choice of ends. The most free will we could have would be some sort of limited ability to act toward ends not chosen, and this is not qualitatively different from what a calculator, mouse, or even an insect, does.

Answer 3

Now this luminous age has come, bringing with it wonderful civilization and material progress. Men's intellects have widened, their perceptions grown, but alas, in spite of all this, fresh blood is being spilt day by day. Look at the present Turco-Italian war; consider for a moment the fate of these unhappy people! How many have been killed during this sad time? How many homes are ruined, wives desolate, and children orphans! And what is to be gained in exchange for all this anguish and heartache? Only a corner of the earth!
(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 107)

Man reacheth perfection through good deeds, voluntarily performed, not through good deeds the doing of which was forced upon him. And sharing is a personally chosen righteous act: that is, the rich should extend assistance to the poor, they should expend their substance for the poor, but of their own free will, and not because the poor have gained this end by force. For the harvest of force is turmoil and the ruin of the social order. On the other hand voluntary sharing, the freely-chosen expending of one's substance, leadeth to society's comfort and peace. It lighteth up the world; it bestoweth honour upon humankind.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 115)

Answer 4

Fate is not free will. Fate relates to destiny and acts of spiritual providence. While free will relates to how we think, act, and socialize.

The new book "Another Thought" by OC Tross explains fully this answer.

www.anotherthoughtbook.com

Answer 5

There is no fate. Quantum mechanics prohibits it.

However, it says nothing about our free will. I think human beings are able to make choices within the range of choices they are able to make. I don't like the idea of a universe as a cellular automata.

Answer 6

The Will is positive, the Judgment is negative. Fate is the determinations for them in our innocence.