Please formalize the argument seen in the following passage: For example: Drunk
ID: 3459955 • Letter: P
Question
Please formalize the argument seen in the following passage:
For example: Drunk driving is very dangerous.
You can't control the car after drinking.
Therefore, you will die if you keep drinking and driving.
Suppose your friend, standing next to you at a party, suddenly lifts her arm and slaps you in the face. You will be inclined to hold her responsible for this action: to blame her for your sore face, resent her for what she did, and think ill of her moral character. But, suppose you find out that her arm is tied to a fish-line, pulled by someone on a balcony above. Your face is still sore, but now you will hardly be inclined to blame her for what happened. Why? Because she wasn't in control of the movement of her arm; once the person in the balcony pulled the line, a sequence of events was put in motion that ended up with your face getting slapped. Given the tug, the rest of the situation, and the laws of nature, your face was going to get slapped. She had no choice. Her movement was the result of a prior, remote event. She was not free to do otherwise. So how can you blame her? But if she is not free, are any of us ever free? For the laws of nature do not just concern fish-lines, they concern all events inside and outside our bodies. If nature obeys universal laws, then our actions are just the most recent parts of a causal sequence of evermore remote events, the earliest parts of which occurred long before we were born. If the fact that the movement of your friends arm is explained by the earlier tug on the fish-line means that she is not free, doesn't the fact that all our actions can be explained by remote events and the working of general laws mean that none of us is ever free?
Explanation / Answer
It’s true that human beings are situational prisoners who are influenced and shaped by various events that they come across, different people they meet and positions they hold in life. One’s entire development is determined by others until they identify themselves and even afterwards their activities and decisions will be determined by social norms, legal requirements and familial commitments. Our life is to an extent determined by our birth itself, the race, the economic status of the family, the gender and religion decide how we will progress in our lives and what kinds of support we would have in the society. Once we get to the school, college, job and family they would further shape our thoughts, behaviours and attitude. So, when we know the reasons for the events that occur in our lives, we would become more aware and take ownership of our reactions to the events and people.