In western philosophy, there has been intense debate on the inconsistency between the sense of free will in human and the observed determinism in natural science. The existence of free will implicates that human can react differently encountering past events and external forces. However, the natural science posits that everything is governed by the perfect physical law, which precludes the possibility of such free will. While I admit the existence of free will, I believe people have very few control over their behaviors, which are essentially determined by innate factors, childhood experience and the society.
First, we should clarify the definition of external forces. People usually consider external forces as influence coming from outside such as school, family and society. Yet, we should also recognize certain other influence from inside as external forces. For example, there are people with innate disability and mental issues, which are certainly not controlled by themselves. These physical and mental restrictions would largely determine how they will live the rest of their lives. Physical-challenging people may eat differently, walk differently and sleep differently as opposed of people without these disabilities or mental issues. Although the limitations seem to be internal, external forces actually intensify their inconvenience, such as specific requirement of certain schools and certain occupations. Moreover, they may receive special treatment, and in return, being forced to respond to these special attentions, not in accordance with their own will. In general, we were born genetically different, which largely determined how we live our life.
After we were born, we instantly confronted overwhelming external forces such as family, school and society. There are numerous studies on how economic status of parents plays an important role in children’s behavior in school, leading to divergent academic performance. Psychological research reveals that students had abusing relations with their parents are tended to be bullies in school. Also, adults with childhood trauma have higher suicide tendency. These are influences on people’s minds which further determined future performance. There are also physical constraints which prevent free action. Besides, studies acknowledge the significance of ascribed status, that people with low economic status generally must overcome greater obstacles to moving upward in social ladder. They physically lack the time and energy to gain sophisticated skills, keep healthy diet, obtain high paid or meet the expectation from the society. Another more extreme example would be how slavery restrained freedom. Behaviors of African slaves in 1700s were completely controlled by their masters’ willingness. Nowadays, hierarchy and law system regulate individuals' behavior, with punishment mechanism to prevent people from abusing their freedom. Overall, factors from outside have great impact on us physically and mentally and rule our behaviors fundamentally.
However, the word “largely” does not tantamount to solely or completely. My argument does not preclude the existence of free will and its implication. Firstly, we should differentiate between free will and free action. While we mostly do not possess free action, given the existence of external forces, we have free will to determine our behaviors. Secondly, as rare as it is, free will does lead to free actions in some cases. For instance, Hellen Keller, the first deaf-blind person to earn bachelor degree of art, overcame physical limitations and external discrimination and lived her life by her will.
In summary, if we generalize our behaviors with an equation consisted of one thousand variables, we would unfortunately find most of them out of control. Our genes, family, school, and society determined or shaped most of our behaviors through different treatments, ascribed status, and laws and regulations. However, in rare cases, the seemly unimportant variable, free will, significantly modifies the outcome of the behaviors’ equation.
- Some people claim that the goal of politics should be the pursuit of an ideal. Others argue that the goal should be finding common ground and reaching reasonable consensus.Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your own 70
- People's behavior is largely determined by forces not of their own making.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting 91
- The following appeared on theWeb site Science News Today.“In a recent survey of more than 5,000 adolescents, the teens who reported eating the most meals with their families were the least likely to use illegal drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. Family meals w 50
- People's behavior is largely determined by forces not of their own making.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting 58
- Some people claim that the goal of politics should be the pursuit of an ideal Others argue that the goal should be finding common ground and reaching reasonable consensus Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your own 88
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, besides, first, firstly, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, while, for example, for instance, in general, in summary, such as, in some cases
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.5258426966 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 22.0 12.4196629213 177% => OK
Conjunction : 25.0 14.8657303371 168% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 11.3162921348 88% => OK
Pronoun: 45.0 33.0505617978 136% => OK
Preposition: 76.0 58.6224719101 130% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 12.9106741573 186% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3518.0 2235.4752809 157% => OK
No of words: 608.0 442.535393258 137% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.78618421053 5.05705443957 114% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.9656475924 4.55969084622 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.06024317602 2.79657885939 109% => OK
Unique words: 333.0 215.323595506 155% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.547697368421 0.4932671777 111% => OK
syllable_count: 1087.2 704.065955056 154% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59117977528 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 15.0 6.24550561798 240% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Interrogative: 0.0 0.740449438202 0% => OK
Article: 5.0 4.99550561798 100% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 3.10617977528 193% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.77640449438 169% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.38483146067 137% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 34.0 20.2370786517 168% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 23.0359550562 74% => OK
Sentence length SD: 38.221852841 60.3974514979 63% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.470588235 118.986275619 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.8823529412 23.4991977007 76% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.02941176471 5.21951772744 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 7.80617977528 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 20.0 10.2758426966 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 5.13820224719 156% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.83258426966 124% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.154289408043 0.243740707755 63% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0444916760907 0.0831039109588 54% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0391616692207 0.0758088955206 52% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0898483070585 0.150359130593 60% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0401908304701 0.0667264976115 60% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.8 14.1392134831 105% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.3 48.8420337079 76% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.1743820225 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 16.01 12.1639044944 132% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.65 8.38706741573 115% => OK
difficult_words: 199.0 100.480337079 198% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 11.8971910112 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.2143820225 78% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.7820224719 102% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.