Is "Free Will" a gift or a curse?

Question

Since Jean Paul Sartre says that:
"Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."

Thanx for your answers :)

Answer 1

Free will is both a gift and a curse. For will has full of dynamism that controls a person. Actions of man are primarily based on the so-called free will. All our desires in life are rooted on free will. It is the reason why man do bad things and good things. A curse because man is subjected to evil because of free will. In the same token, it is also a gift based on the same premise.

Thanks to your interesting question. Have a wonderful day!

Answer 2

Jean Paul Sartre , a thinking Frenchman wrote about free will after his country was occupied during WW2,and he was captured and imprisoned for 9 months. He was active in the resistance after that.

All Frenchmen were subjected to choices during those times- resistance, collaboration with the occupiers, or quiet self preservation ( see no evil hear no evil etc)

Those were the times he wrote that sentence.
Out of those three choices, he chose to resist.
That was the man he was.
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"...that man is condemned to freedom. There is no God, so man must rely upon his own fallible will and moral insight. He cannot escape choosing." (Chambers.)

The philosophy of existentialism depicts man, alone and afraid in a world he never made.
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A gift or a curse?
Free will is both.

Answer 3

Free will seems forever debatable - but whatever it is, whether it's a gift or a curse depends on what you make of it. And how you interpret the results. I'd certainly take it, with all its implications, in preference to any other option. Surely it's better to die free than live in chains? Though I know many wouldn't agree and would rather some "higher power" took responsibility.

Answer 4

Sartre also says that "life is absurd and meaningless and because of this I am filled with anguish". So obviously to Sartre it is a curse, because If you had no free will, and everything is predetermined by a god, who grants you immortality, then there is a reason to life. I am somewhere between he and Nietzsche. I believe it is not a gift, it is what we have. And because we have it we are responsible.

Answer 5

RE: previous poster: I disagree that free will is an illusion.

Free will is cause and effect. Every action has an opposite and equal reaction. It's one of the laws of the universe.

The ability to act is not an illusion just because it produces an effect. You have the choice to make your decision therefore you have no one else to blame but yourself when you get the product of that action.

I believe free will is God's greatest gift to us. What good is free will if it is conditional or if it has strings attached? it doesn't. However, everything in this universe is balanced and every action will in some way, somewhere, have an effect in a profound way.

Blows your mind when one thinks about it that way.

Answer 6

Yes, it is both a gift and a curse (a usual saying on USA's Monk) It is firstly a gift because of course we all feel that we are grateful to have the freedom of speech and the power to do whatever we want, but that is when it becomes a curse. People take it out of control and can try to base murder on "free will". I hope this helps!

Answer 7

Hellfire is for Satan and his Demons. Satan Got there because he tried to rebel against God. When Adam and Eve sinned they made mankind destined to end up with the first sinner (satan) in the place for sinners (Hell). God remedied this by sending Jesus to die on the cross and take away the sins of humanity. Now anyone who accepts Christ as their personal savior can enter heaven instead of the alternative, which is Hellfire. No amount of good works can gain us entry. It's a gift for those who have accepted Christ. We were ALL destined for hellfire but Jesus is offering us an alternative. A chance to get into heaven. I'll put it another way Suppose I was told I had a fatal disease but that someone had paid for the cure already and that all I needed to do was ask for it at the pharmacy and give their name. Easy right? Of course I don't have to go. I can easily just say, there are millions of doctors and countless medicines there's no way I can be sure that this medicine will cure me and I've seen people that say they took the medicine. They weren't nice so I won't take it. What's going to happen? I'm going to die. Whose fault is it? Mine. The medicine I needed was paid for and waiting for me. I didn't take it. I didn't want to. Would it make ANY sense to blame the person who left the medicine for me? NO. they paid for it in full and I decided I didn't want it.

Answer 8

Free will allows the choice of being responsible or not. Freedom as a "condemnation" is an irrational view of man without freedom: an automaton. But "free will" is an epistemological concept, and as such, is not a gift but a choice of one set of principles over another--that of choosing to be irresponsible.

Answer 9

Free-will is a curse if wishes keep growing and expanding without any limits and corresponding powers remain as limited as ever. A free flowing will with significantly constrained capabilities is the cause for all our unhappiness and strife.

Free-will is the greatest blessing if we learn to keep our desires in reasonable control such that they do provide the necessary stretch to our capabilities but do not end up straining them to the point of breaking.

Answer 10

It is a gift, to be able to do what you please. However, those who are so diluted that they cannot bear responsibility for their choices, should not even be allowed the gift. One is not "condemned" to be free, one is "allowed" to be free, it is a privilege and should be treated as such. Only when the child called Man is sent into the world, feeble-minded and ill-prepared, to strangle himself with his lack of knowledge at how to utilize his free will, then it becomes a so-called curse only in the eyes of other scared, and ill-fated children.

...Devi