is banishment, leaving to lead a meaningful life elsewhere. Instead, he blinded himself, thus ensuring a life of pain and suffering. In todays world, people are consumed with blaming others for their problems, never taking accountability for their own actions. If one is not in control of his or her actions, then they are not responsible for them. Who is responsible in this case? is anyone? Someone, it seems, must be held responsible for society to work. People must be held responsible for their actions or there would be total chaos.The Soft Determinist and the Greeks understood this. The Soft Determinist believes that though many of our actions are only a result of outside stimuli, we remain responsible from them. Much like the Greeks fate, one cannot control his life in the entirety, but one must take responsibility for his or her own action. For one to be responsible for his or her actions, all one must do is act. Freedom is the ability to carry through with the action that has been selected. There is usually more that one option in any affair; freedom lies in ability to make a choice and execute that decision. As Sartre enumerated, men are condemned to be free. Yes, men are predisposed and taught to act a certain way, but the process of development is not only determined by the outside world, but by oneself. The complex nature of consciousness allows man to teach himself as much, if not more than, the outside would. The Greeks looked at this as remembering the forms; knowledge was not taught as much as revealed. Self-reflection is one of the things that makes us human and one of the reasons we can and should be held responsible for our actions. Many things are fated to happen because of the situation and genetics of birth, but mans reality is not only formed by others; man also determines that reality for himself. ...
