Fate

1
Fate Free Will

• Ancient Greek Beliefs and Oedipus Rex

2
Concept of Fate

• Fatalism is the system of belief that holds that
  the universe and everything in it is governed by
  destiny or fate (moira). A fatalist would hold
  that even the lives of human beings are
  determined by fate.  
• In the earliest strands of Greek thought, fate is
  often portrayed as an impersonal force to which
  even the  gods are subject.

3
The Concept of Fate cont.

• This force became personified in Greek religion
  in the form of the three goddesses of fate (the
  Moirai) 
• Clotho spins the thread of life.
• Lachesis determines the length of a person's life
  and measures the thread of his glory (or its
  opposite).
• Atropos determines when that life should end.

4
The Fates
5
The Concept of Fate Gods

• In general, the gods are portrayed in Greek
  literature as the agents of fate (they dont
  actually control it they just know it). 
• The Greek gods had supernatural powers
  (particularly over human life), but their power
  was severely limited by a concept of fate (Moira)
  as the relentless force of destiny.

6
The Fates and the Gods

• The gods were not thought to be omnipresent,
  omniscient, or omnipotent. Shorn of the usual
  godly attributes, the Olympians often took on the
  property of being simply bigger than humans, but
  not different or alien.
• The Olympians fought one another and often
  meddled in human affairs (this intervention was
  called the deus ex machina, or divine
  intervention).
• The superhuman features of the Olympians were
  their immortality and their ability to reveal the
  future to humanity.

7
The Gods and Man

• Action was crucial and exciting by the very fact
  of life's brevity, and people were expected to
  perform by their own particular heroic arete, or
  virtue.
• The Greeks, however, did expect information about
  their future life on earth from the gods. Thus
  divination was a central aspect of religious
  life.

8
The Gods and Man cont.

• The Olympians were, perhaps, most important in
  their role as civic deities, and each of the
  Greek city-states came to consider one or more of
  the gods as its particular guardian.
• There were public cults that were devoted to
  insuring the city against plague, conquest, or
  want.

9
Questioning of the Gods and Mans Power to
Reason/Choose

• The civil strife that followed the classical
  period (from c.500 B.C.) placed the old gods on
  trial. Often the gods did not answer with the
  visible and immediate rewards that were expected.
  
• Greek philosophers began to seek a more rational
  and scientific approach in humanity's relation to
  nature, espousing a logical and important
  connection between humanity and nature, not a
  mysterious and secret one between humans and god.

10
The Rise of Man

• Great human accomplishments during the Athenian
  Golden Age (500-300BC/5th Century BC) in
  politics, the arts/architecture, literature,
  philosophy, etc. presented a picture of man as
  highly capable and able to use his intellect and
  reason to achieve great things
• This created an obvious tension with the
  traditional concept of fate.

11
Fate and Free Will

• How can the idea of fate be reconciled with human
  freedom? Not very well!
• In ancient Greek thought it was often held that
  the life of an individual is so rigorously
  predetermined by fate that he or she has no power
  to affect the course of events that will
  inevitably be played out. 
• We are passive pawns in life, completely subject
  to the whims of fate, and nothing that we do, or
  try to do, can change the course that has already
  been mapped out for us. 
• At best all we can do is try to act kata moiran"
  (in accordance with fate), since any attempt to
  disrupt the natural course of things will usually
  spell disaster for ourselves and our loved ones.

12
Fate Justice

• For the Ancient Greeks, there is no relation
  between fate and justice. Fate deals with those
  things that cannot be controlled.
• Justice deals with the choices that you make. The
  idea of justice is to punish when choices are
  bad, regardless of intent.
• Unlike modern justice, the ancient Greek concept
  of justice holds that actions and outcomes
  matter, intent does not.

13
Fate Responsibility

• Problem with the fatalist positionif a person's
  entire life and actions are determined by fate,
  then how can that person be considered
  responsible for any actions, positive or
  negative, that he performs?
• In Oedipus, it is important to remember that
  there is a relationship between fate and human
  choice (free will) mans fate may be
  predetermined, but mans actions make it happen!

14
Aristotle (384-322 BC)

• One of the greatest philosophers of the ancient
  world, Aristotle, believed that far from being a
  passive tool of fate, a human being possesses
  free will which makes him responsible for the
  actions that he performs.
• This does not mean that he rejects fate
  altogether, but emphasizes mans choices in
  dealing with what he encounters.
• Remember that Aristotle consider Oedipus Rex to
  be the supreme example of Greek tragedy due to
  the fact that Oedipus recognizes his reversal of
  fortune at the moment that is comes about.

15
Implications

• Aristotle's point is a significant one if we are
  indeed responsible for our actions, then the
  implication is that fate holds no real power over
  us. 
• We are completely free to become whatever kind of
  person we choose to be---vicious or virtuous.  We
  should, therefore not blame fate, genetics our
  environment or anything else for the kind of
  people that we have become.  Our faults lie not
  in our stars, but in ourselves (to steal a line
  from Hamlet).

16
What do you think?

• What do you think about Aristotle's argument?  Do
  you think that his claim (that humans are
  responsible for their own destinies) is true, or
  is his view overly simplistic?  
• Do you believe that man ultimately controls his
  own destiny?
• Is there a difference between fate and chance
  when it comes to human culpability?
• If fate is cruel, is it possible to be
  virtuous/successful/heroic?