PHILOSOPHY essays

PHILOSOPHY essays I've always been a philosopher at heart, overanalyzing situations, people, and nature; questioning values and our existence. Having long discussions that often lead into arguments on various aspects of life inspires me, as I take in other people's perceptions on life and develop my own. Over the past couple of years my views have drastically changed, and as I matured I sorted I had an epiphany one night last year, while having a telephone conversation with my friend Andre. He was a little older than me and a lot wiser. Him and I spoke for hours as we discussed life's many unanswered questions. That night we argued on the topic of destiny and whether it exists. I am one of those stubborn, independent people that chose to scoff at destiny for I wanted to believe that I had complete control over my actions. But as the night progressed and as our conversation deepened I began to see things Andre argued that we do not have complete free will, but only a limited amount. The rest is up to destiny to decide, which we have no control over. The idea seemed bizarre and outrageous, especially with my mentality at the time. I was a strong believer of free will and the idea of some supernatural force that predetermines our actions sounded crazy. He then gave me an example.Andre said that destiny exists because if we were to travel back and relive a moment, we would have acted upon it the same exact way. I wondered why as he continued.We wouldn't change our actions for that was the way we felt at that specific time and place, after all environment affects our actions. The pieces of the puzzle began to fit together, as words of wisdom entered my brain. Andre said that the small amount of free will that we have over our actions play a significant role as well. He said that we do have a choice to make a stand in life and "live it", or pursue a future. "We have the choice ...