Methodology Paper

Essay 1: Methodology

This essay shall examine physical determinism and its most famous proponent Sir Isaac Newton. The basic framework of the theory states that due to natural laws of the universe that everything obeys, there can be no such thing as freedom. Sir Isaac Newton is incorrect in his theory, physical determinism does not indicate whether or not freedom is possible in our reality.

Like many other scientists, Sir Isaac Newton believed in the concept of universal causation. Universal causation means simply that there is a cause for everything that occurs in the universe, and that one event leads to another event. In Ethics: Theory and Practice by Jacques P. Thiroux and Keith W. Krasemann, they point out that most scientists believe in this for one main reason. In their search for reasoning and acuity for predictions freedom is physically not possible. Thiroux and Krasemann tell us Sir Isaac Newton was a firm believer that, “…our entire realm of nature and the universe is governed by natural laws…” (4). Many of the laws that he speaks of are the ones that he discovered himself, such as his famous three laws and the law of gravity. Sir Newton reasoned that, because humans are also physical beings, they controlled by these laws.

There are some issues that arise from this theory however. Thiroux and Krasemann go on to point out that if all of these laws are completely true then there is no true freedom for anyone.(4) If there is truly no freedom then we are all bound just by the laws that Sir Newton talks about. Humans are no more or less than any other being. This would also mean that they are no more than our physical bodies. It completely disregards the notion that people have minds of their own, are spiritual beings, or have any sort of soul. This is a complete negligence in terms of humans as being different from one another. Besides the idea that their mind is separate from their body, there is still the brain. The brain is made up...