The Intersection of Cultural Determinism and Compatibilism

The Intersection of Cultural Determinism and Compatibilism

After studying the various perspectives on the types of determinism, free will, and compatibilism, I found myself agreeing most with the doctrine of cultural determinism. As it stated in the article, cultural determinism is the belief that we are the “products of our immediate culture.” When considering cultural determinism, I started thinking about all the various aspects of a culture that could exert influence over our everyday choices and actions, and the list was endless: family, friends, social media, music, art, film, etc. From birth, your nuclear family and close set of friends are the primary way you learn the values and essential Truths that you will carry with you throughout your life and that inform your personality and decision making. I also thoroughly agreed with the example in the text that showed that the cultural values and influences that are passed on vary widely between cultures. For example, the cultural values that are important to me are my education at Belmont, obtaining my degree, and landing a good job on Music Row. However, while visiting an extremely poor village in Mexico over the summer, I realized the values that the culture held most dear were each individual’s ability to create handmade goods to sell in the marketplace, and survival in general. Overall, my beliefs lie in an intersection between cultural determinism and compatibilism. I believe that the many facets of our culture are so prominent in our everyday lives that they play a large role in shaping our character and personality, and thus the choices that we ultimately make. However, I do not believe that cultural influence completely takes the place of free will. I agree with the studies that state that the ability to make choices at free will is an innately human characteristic, and without it, we lose a large part of what it means to be human.

In my opinion, both cultural determinism and compatibilism have their strengths and weakness. In cultural determinism, it accounts for the influence of newer technologies like social media that other theories widely ignore, as well as larger socioeconomic forces such as politics and the economy. However, it creates the notion that we can become completely brainwashed by cultural phenomenon to the point where they are our only basis for decision-making. When thinking about compatibilism, I believe the theory holds more merit because it serves as a type of middle-ground that allows for some of our bigger life choices and events to be pre-determined, but also allows the belief that humans have the intellectual capacity to exercise free will after surveying various options. The ability to exercise free will is necessary in order to not only take moral responsibility, as noted in the article, but also to make lasting changes on the society in which we live in. As Madeleine Albright put it, “What people have the capacity to choose, they have the ability to change.”