Determinism and Stoicism
Man can indeed do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wants.
Arthur Schopenhauer
It is very likely that the outcome of most things in the world, including the desires1 and mental states2 of ourselves3 and others, are already predetermined4 by events in the distant past. A criminal or good Samaritan, for example, can be viewed as a person whose antecedent moral, social and genetic factors have resulted in them being bound, so to speak, to have either the desire to help others or a lack of self control resulting in the criminal act. This is not to say that they should not be punished or praised, for we know that such interventions can be beneficial. Rather, we should view their acts with the same amount of significance as we would to our expectations of a faulty program running smoothly or a mouse outrunning a cheetah, because we know that the outcome could not have been otherwise, given the antecedent factors.