Determinism: Up to fate?

Rex Acharya, [email protected]

Your assignment is due on Monday.Actually, let’s say you have five assignments due on Monday, and it is currently 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Panic and regret start to sink in. Why did you wait till the last moment to finish the work? Is it entirely your fault?

Or, are people conditioned by their environment so much that they can’t truly be held accountable for their actions?
B.F. Skinner, an accredited behaviorist, explains his theory that our actions and reactions are more likely determined by the environment and other surrounding factors rather than ourselves.

When we decide something, we do so based on choices. We can choose either this or that, which is pretty simple.
However, people not living in an ideal world would disagree with that statement.
Life is more than just this or that. Life is more than just yes or no. Life is a complex, complicated, jumbled up, tangled thing that doesn’t help human beings make decisions based on simple choices.

We must to take into context the various factors that have basically already made decisions on our behalf. This continues the illusion that we are in control.
B.F. Skinner spent his life trying to explain the same thing. In his research, Skinner explains how “free-will” is just an illusion, and the actions of humans are the result of environmental stimulus and their personal history.

Humans are as responsible for their actions as an ant is responsible for global warming.
The argument may seem vague or one-sided, but behaviorism is completely against the humanistic view of psychology. This opposite view says that humans are in charge of their actions and the fulfillment of their needs.

I am not saying determinism is completely true. With this attitude, people could blame others for their actions or simply not take responsibility for them. That is human nature.
Free-will is important for making individual decisions and can be beneficial.

In this current age of science, where we are looking for patterns in every little phenomenon to understand and predict the true nature of problems, determinism is the pre-determined choice for me. Not everything can be explained and with that logic, how can we truly know what affects the lives of humans.

The next time you want to blame yourself for not being able to complete your assignments on time, keep in mind all of the things that happened prior that may have led you to this situation.