sartre and hawking

Jean Paul Sartre’s essay Existentialism discusses how free humans are to create themselves. Jean Paul Sartre believes that we are not initially born with a purpose, that we have to create our purpose on our own. He believes we are all born with freedom and ability to become anything based on the choices we make in our lives, and these choices are what makes us who we are. He feels this freedom can sometimes be binding, because anything we choose contributes to who we are and the idea that there is no set right or wrong creates uncertainty. Existentialists believe there is no God, or at least God created the universe with no real purpose. They reject destiny or any predetermined will. I agree with some components of

Statre’s argument on freewill, but not fully on the idea of no higher being or God creating the universe without any sort of plan.

Theoretical Physicist Stephen Hawking essay tells another theory. Stephen Hawking believes that there are universal laws that limit freewill. He discusses how day to day, things are uncertain and people act freely. However, on a larger scale history is quite predictable. He also comments how limited we are because of how little we have changed biologically despite all the change in the world. Thus we are stuck with the same biological limits as cave people. For these reasons, he believes we do not have absolute freewill and are some things are predetermined. Perhaps not on a small scale, but on a larger picture, there are events that are bound to happen because of how humans are made and how the universe works.