Introduction

The ultimate planner to radically transform your life:

· Enhance your productivity

· Identify your strengths and weaknesses

· Organise your life & mind

· Daily motivation towards your goals

· Get to know yourself with reflection prompts

· Identify areas of yourself and your life that need to change

· Determine the steps needed to achieve your goals

· and ultimately…help you GET SH*T DONE.

Objectives:

1. To investigate the relationship between fate and destiny in experiences daily life.

2. To examine  philosophical, spiritual, and cultural views

3. To evaluate personal decision-making in light of the boundaries set by fate and destined purpose. 

Scope of study:In this paper  the scope wa in  the philosophical and experiential dimensions of destiny and fate in human life. one Greek and one Shakespeare’s tragedy ie, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare’s Macbeth are referred to make understand the reader about this topic.

Literature Review :

Destiny is what’s meant to be, what’s written in the stars, your inescapable fate. You might think it’s your destiny to own a dog, but your sad goldfish survival rate should tell you that happy pets probably aren’t in your future.

The theory of “destiny” is an important part of Zhuangzi’s thought, which constitutes the focus of academic analysis and research. There are more than 80 raw materials related to the word “destiny” in Zhuangzi. Analysising of these more than 80 raw materials, focused on the dimension of philosophical usage, “destiny” has the basic meanings of “destiny as encountering”, “destiny as heaven” and “destiny as disposition”. The destiny of Zhuangzi is characterized by inevitability, contingency and naturalness. The so-called inevitability of “destiny” refers to its helplessness and necessity. However, from the point of view of the “destiny” itself, it is completely accidental. Inevitability and contingency are unified in naturalness. Zhuangzi’s theory of “destiny” starts from the predicament of life, but it can also be extended to include the existence and content of any things that falls above the human body. In short, in Zhuangzi, “destiny” is generalized, and it can include all the encounters of a person, no matter what characteristic it maybe is.

what are the behaviors that define character?

1. Prudence

Don’t make reckless choices. Use good judgement. Analyze, compare, calculate & project.
Accurate critical thinking (what’s true, what’s false, what’s relevant).
Open-minded. Flexible. Lack of prejudice or bias.
Keep things in perspective – don’t make mountains out of molehills.

2. Justice

Don’t advantage yourself, your family or friends at the expense of others.
Seek first to understand before seeking to be understood.  See the other person’s viewpoint.
The “something for nothing” attitude is wrong.

3. Fortitude

Moral courage. Do the hard thing. Have the hard conversation, in a diffident manner.
Face your harsh realities. Encounter adversity or bear pain with a pleasant disposition.
Gallantry in life’s struggles. To Dare. “There is safety in valor.” – Emerson
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. – Anais Nin

4. Temperance

Appetites and passions in balance. No vices.  Self-control in communication as well as actions. Self-discipline.
Rule your emotions. Don’t raise voice and display anger. Stay detached from other’s disharmony. Poise.
Self-denial. Thrift. Save some percent of every paycheck. “Utter valiant ‘no’s’ instead of ruinous ‘yes’s’.” – Emerson
The personality traits which produce our strengths can become our weaknesses, if not kept in balance (all things in moderation). Vigilantly strive to uncover, examine, admit and battle your shortcomings, in the ongoing struggle to improve how you behave. “I don’t excuse my failings, I confront them.”

5. Ambition

Dreams. Worthwhile goals. The “Will” to improve yourself, your organization & or society.
Strong desire. Devotion to a great cause. Drive to achieve one’s potential – To make the most of life.
Aspiration – longing for something better. There are no successes without aspirations.
“Ordinary goals keep people ordinary. Life’s successes result from a lofty aim.” – Brownlow

6. Work Ethic

Action toward a definite purpose. In earnest. Diligent effort. Industrious.
A hard thinker as much as a hard worker.
Initiative. Determination to succeed. Orderly. Quality workmanship.

7. Perseverance

Single-minded Persistence in spite of obstacles. Don’t allow yourself an “exit strategy”.
Focus. Endurance. Take the long-term view. “The virtue lies in the struggle.” – A. A. Milne
Most great endeavors require a “perseverance” stage.  Resolute determination can change the outcome.
Providence comes to the aid of the person who fights on even after the battle seems lost.

8. Honesty

Doing what’s right when nobody’s looking – J.C. Watts. Truthful. Full disclosure. Sincere.
Pure of heart. Candor. Forthright. Fidelity. Don’t equivocate or exaggerate. Pay debts on time.
“I don’t lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do.” – West Point honor code. 
Afraid of no truth – Thom. Jefferson  Honest self-assessment.
Don’t lie to yourself. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit – Marcus Aurelius

9. Kindness

Uphold the Golden Rule: treat others the way you’d like to be treated. Friendly. Mild. Gentle.
Regard for the other person’s feelings. Take a genuine interest in people.
Compassion. Tolerance. Forgiveness. Forbearance. Mercy.

10. Responsibility

“You can depend on me.” Take the blame for your failures. Trustworthy. Decisive & Self-reliant.
Careful observance of duty, as a: grown child, sibling, spouse, parent, employee or employer.
Instead of seeing yourself as a victim, search for the role “you played” in your negative outcomes.
Nature requires that we earn what we get, and that we get what we earn.

11. Service

Be a good servant – to your spouse, your family, your customers, your co-workers & your subordinates.
Constructive.  Helpful. Promote harmony. Be a peacemaker. Encourage others. Altruism.
“You can have everything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar 
“Extraordinary success is achieved by making those around you successful.” – Citrin & Smith

12. Ongoing Education

Continuous learning, development, and growth in your field of interest, resulting in ever-increasing competence.
Introspection. A life-long process of 1)self-searching 2)education and 3)applying what you learn.
A thirst for self-improvement. Exploring. Discovering. Learn from your failures. 
“The purpose of education is not knowledge – it is right action.” – Herbert Spencer
Living an examined life will liberate and transform us.

13. Enthusiasm

Optimistic. Cheerful. Upbeat. Zeal. Vigor. Internal Locus of Control – believing you can influence your outcomes.

14. Humility

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.
The willingness to admit our faults; to apologize; to accept criticism; to give others the credit.
It allows us to see how our wrong thinking or wrong actions have hurt us in the past.
Playing the “big shot” turns others against us and harms our outcomes.

15. Respectfulness

Be courteous & polite. Treat others with dignity. Be punctual. Avoid foul language.
Show respect for all persons and their property. Have respect for yourself.

16. Gratitude

“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” – William James
Show your appreciation. Count your blessings.

17. Loyalty

Toward noble people and high ideals.
One indicator of high character is a large number of long relationships.

18. Generosity

Charity. Charitably interpret the actions of others. Goodwill for others.
Give with no expectation of return, to family, in-laws, neighbors & fellow citizens in a jam.
The power of generosity to make a life of prosperity and consequence.

If you study the lives of people who have achieved above average “destinies”
you can trace the source back to the “character traits” listed here

5 classical theories about fate

The idea of fate is linked to free will. When we act – e.g. when we eat, fall in love, buy something from the shops, or follow someone’s advice- do we act freely and voluntarily, or by some twist of fate? Can our choices ever change the direction our life takes?

The idea of fate is linked to free will. When we act – e.g. when we eat, fall in love, buy something from the shops, or follow someone’s advice- do we act freely and voluntarily, or by some twist of fate? Can our choices ever change the direction our life takes?

ü Socrates

ü Aristotle

ü Confucius 

ü Stoics

ü St Augustine

What is the Law of Common Fate?

The law of common fate is a principle of Gestalt psychology. It states that when elements move together, humans see them as a group as human nature associates objects that share a common motion (e.g., a flock of birds). Designers apply common fate and leverage the power of motion—both real and implied—to create relationships between screen design elements.  

How the Law of Common Fate Determines the “Destiny” of Design Elements

The Gestalt law of common fate addresses motion and orientation in designs. According to this principle, when elements in a design show similar movement or behavior, viewers see them as connected. This phenomenon is natural to the human eye—and mind—because people’s brains tend to seek patterns automatically. Because of this, common fate is a staple in graphic design.  

“Gestalt” is the German word for “shape” or “form.” It is a psychological theory of visual perception. The Gestalt school consisted of psychologists Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Köhler and Max Wertheimer, working in 1920s’ Germany. The central point of Gestalt theories is that human beings perceive objects in the world in patterns or whole forms. According to the Gestalt psychologists, people do not visually process their surroundings as a collection of separate parts. Instead, the mind organizes these elements into a cohesive whole.    

The Gestalt principles or laws address this tendency of the mind to simplify a complex image so the person sees it in a certain manner. The human inclination to process visual information accounts for how the elements of a seen image form visual relationships with each other. There are numerous Gestalt principles. Notable ones are the principles, or laws, of similarity, prägnanz, common region, figure ground, proximity, closure, and common fate. 

How Does the Law of Common Fate Work in Digital Design?

The common fate principle provides a unique perspective on how users perceive and interact with digital products or services. Like other visual designers, UX designers who mindfully apply this principle can create works that are engaging—ones that help users in their tasks to achieve goals. They can create interfaces that are visually cohesive, intuitively navigable and intriguing, leading to richer user experiences.

Do you make

 

Thales, the 5th century BCE pre-Socratic philosopher, introduced the concept laws of nature (physis), what we now call science. Anaximander, a student of Thales, observed: for every force in nature there is a reactive opposite force eventually leading to equilibrium. Applying this law in biological situations explains what is called homeostasis. Anaximander explained his observation by using the metaphor of a legal trial where opposing sides (adversaries or forces) argue their conflict before a judge and jury eventuating in conflict resolution, equilibrium and order. The ancient Greeks named this process after Hesiod’s Goddess of Justice, Dike, which became the Greek word for justice.

         Nature’s laws are universal principles that existed before the appearance of homo sapiens and do not change over time. They are primordial. Gravity is a good example. Another way of putting it echoes the Declaration of Independence’s “self-evident truth that all men are created equal”. Self-evident is a secular way of saying divine. “History is prologue” (Shakespeare, The Tempest act 1 scene 1) and engraved on our National Archives is another example. It articulates the law of causation.

Heraclitus observed another law of nature involved universal constant change, as expressed in his metaphor: “all things flow, nothing abides—you can’t step in the same river twice”. Anaximander’s for every force there is a counter force to equilibrium prepared the way for Heraclitus’ conception of a basic harmony, in the midst of the ongoing flux, because while changes swirled and clashed, there was Logos, logical reasoning, like judge and jury attuning and creating harmony establishing order. There was an attunement of the clashing forces. Attunement is a fundamental, or natural, law process, triggered by clashing forces. In the midst of the constant change, Logos attunes and rules, not irrationality and chaos. Reason establishes order.

As Homo sapiens evolved an inherent need for connection in the service of survival led to larger and larger groups. Maintaining order was essential. That’s when Logos law emerged in the human community. To be effective, whether dealing with a dyad of female and male or of a city, state, nation or international community the law has to include fundamental moral elements or human’s underlying primitive savagery would rip society apart. It has to be more than an abstract system of laws to be Justice. Morality infuses life, transforming law into Justice. As Alexander Hamilton later said, “As in religion, the word kills, the spirit gives life”. Morality is an inevitable element of human nature that enables order, that enables civilization. Unfortunately, morality cannot be put into words, cannot be put in written form meaningfully. Morality cannot be legislated, cannot be textualized. This has presented quite a problem to our culture that relies on the written word. I have long wondered if this issue was integrated in legal education.     

Beginning in the ninth-to-eighth century BCE, Greek population increased and the emergence of a cohesive underclass contributed to urbanization. People gravitated into towns for survival and protection but also increasingly for political functions, such as governance.

The family, clan, and tribe became subject to the community. This evolving urban center called “polis” also became an important economic unit, a center for trade and transactions as a civic entity. This polis (city-state) nurtured, educated, and served as the center and foundation of Hellenic community.  Concentration of population entailed inevitable conflicts that carried seeds of destruction, but also the emergence of the natural law of Logos, attunement processes that enabled community living.  

The developing polis nourished by the natural law of Logos and its process of attunement was the fertile soil where western democratic civilization took root. Although it was a time of class conflict, economic depressions, starvation, invasions, migrations, pestilence, and wars, Greece was emerging from her dark archaic past In the emergence we see the sprouting of philosophy, justice, science, and humanism—civilizing forces powered by the development of written language, music, poetry, art, and theatre. The eighth century is also the era of Homer and Hesiod—bards, who gave an echoing vibrant mythological history that sketched the character of civilization to be. Although some argue against Homeric authorship, the Iliad and the Odyssey are windows into centuries of history, bringing to life, through powerful, emotional poetic narrative, a people, their origins, their cultural heritage, and the principles that came to shape their society, and ours. From the mythic past Homer drew the first Greek theology, a primitive religion of Olympic gods—mirror images, flaws and all, of his epic mortal heroes. He addresses the basic issues of humankind’s origins, of creation, but also the history of our progress from primitive savagery to civilization. In the Iliad we see the origins of urban social organization in the early polis, with communal life centered in the agora, the open marketplace. Religion was practiced there, but also business, trade, and justice. Homer portrays a fundamental problem and the struggle to solve it through his poetic symbol of Achilles’ shield, which pictures two means of conflict resolution: On one side of the shield is a battle scene and on the other an agora, the communal marketplace where judges sit hearing the two sides of conflict before a jury of citizens. The shield symbolizes violent as against peaceful resolution, war versus a justice system. 

Hesiod, the second oldest epic Greek poet, came from a rural background more plebeian than the aristocratic Homer. Where Homer’s epics are intended for the elite, Hesiod speaks to a different audience and from another perspective. He writes and sings about and to his roots, the common people. He puts into song and verses the story of the poor and the grinding toil of the farmer. He gives voice to the underclass, to those who are economically and socially beaten down and exploited by the nobility. The conflict between the haves and have-nots had gone on all during the evolution of the city-state, through wars, famines, and migrations; continuing with the merging of families, tribes, and clans as well as a relatively brief flirtation with monarchy; and the gradual assumption of power by a ruling aristocracy.

Around 700-625 BCE, possibly a hundred and fifty years before Solon, Hesiod produced Works and Days, his hymns on humanity and its ills, in which he brings Justice, which he terms “Just Retaliation,” down from Olympus in the form of a goddess called Dike. Hesiod saw the need for justice here on Earth, for the oppressed, and he expressed it in theological, mythic terms.  

The hundred years or so after Hesiod were revolutionary, with an impact that created cultural waves that still carry us. During that century, Thales the 6th century BCE pre-Socratic philosopher, introduced the concept laws of nature, what we now call science. He said mythology is myth, stories to explain the unknown. Real understanding of the world comes from observation and logical reasoning to perceive the laws, or principles, by which nature is governed. Nature is ruled by laws

Thales suggested that under the seeming chaos of the likes of lightning, floods, thunder, tides, and drought there might be order reflecting knowable, fundamental laws of nature. His thinking had a profound impact on the development of physical science, but also on drama, the arts, medicine, psychology, law, and governance. Thales and Solon were colleagues. Solon applied Thales’ principles of scientific understanding to the polis (city-state). Rejecting tyranny, autocratic rule, mysticism and theocracy, Solon became the first political scientist and put government on a rational basis. 

         Thales’ student Anaximander observed in nature (physis) that every force provokes an opposite force tending towards equilibrium, a tendency towards   a balancing of forces, and borrowing the symbol for justice from Hesiod, he called this principle dike. Anaximander also had a mathematical bent; he borrowed from Pythagoras as well as from Hesiod.  Proportion and geometrical balance formed his perspective and can be seen in his application of mathematical principles to harmonics and reactions in nature. He introduced the concept of process, in which the balancing of competing and compensating forces involves interaction over time.                 

Anaximander’s audience was skeptical, so he used an explanation they could understand. Greek society at the time was litigious. Anaximander explained using a legal metaphor of a trial where opposing advocates(forces) argue before a judge and jury to resolve conflict. The end result is equilibrium, in nature, order in the courtroom. 

It is not by chance that Anaximander used legal language and refers to trials, debating adversaries, and judges. Since the time of Homer and Hesiod, the Greek legal system developed in a symbiotic relationship with evolving science.  Hesiod defined justice (dike) as retribution from the gods—an eye for an eye, so to speak (a notion not dissimilar from some modern versions). Yet buried in Homer is the idea that there is a more fundamental law than that of gods and that even they are not above it—not even Zeus. 

In the more than three hundred years from Homer and Hesiod to Solon’s ascendancy, a weak monarchy gave way to a controlling powerful aristocracy, which in turn was challenged by a swelling and dissatisfied disenfranchised lower class. Class conflict worsened as society became more complicated, and it was compounded by the growth of a middle class of merchants, traders, and businessmen. Burdensome, autocratic, serving the wealthy, exploiting the underclasses, justice was an ongoing contentious theme. The result was a series of coups by tyrants and cycles of retaliatory violence. 

A significant characteristic of Greek religion was its family structure. From Homer, we learn the Olympian family had its rules, and even Zeus had to abide by them. There was law more fundamental than the gods; there was a power above the gods—the basis of the rule of law. This is also the basis of what the later Romans balanced as a fundamental maxim in Lex Rex or the “the Law is King” rather than Rex Lex as “the King is the Law.” The best of Western Civilzation and all other wise global cultures have strived to maintain this principle, although it hasn’t been easy given the greed for power in certain flawed individuals whose toxic characters never develop beyond infantile selfishness.

 As the Olympian family lost its religious influence, this power for some in the sixth century became nature and natural law—science. To others it became human law—justice. To others it became philosophy—the nature of knowledge. These natural philosophers were joined by insightful tragedians who realized that the Olympian family was the reflection of the human family, and that the gods were projections from the minds of mortals. These thinkers, the philosophers and tragic dramatists, saw through mythology to what it said about human nature; they looked into the mind, identifying underlying principles and patterns. It is their insights, later developed and joined with medicine that contributes to modern psychiatry. 

Solon visited with Thales, which event became an interesting account immortalized by Plutarch. Solon became the first political scientist, separated church and state, drafted a constitution and legal code that articulated the rule of law, equality before the law, and instituted a public court system. I would like to emphasize that it was Solon who introduced the rule of law to governance. Solon’s constitution and legal code has been called The Athenian Magna Carta. Solon took Anaximander’s metaphor and made it real. One hundred years later, when Solon’s justice system was under threat, Aeschylus produced the Oresteia, which made democratic justice immortal. 

Across the Aegean in Ephesus Heraclitus, another Milesian, extended laws of nature to include human nature, and observed a defect in the prevailing reliance on written law. He said there is at least a germ of fundamental morality in human nature. Indeed morality in the laws of human nature enabled homo sapiens to emerge from savagery and live in civilizedsociety. Without morality humans could not live together in any sizable community without tearing each other apart. To Heraclitus humankind was basically savage. Humane law, that is natural law, serves as a bulwark keeping underlying savagery at bay, of keeping the beast locked up, allowing civilization. Without morality the might is right principle would prevail (autocracy in one form or another) leading eventually to reversion to savagery. Modern technology compounds savagery. Statutory law does not include a moral element, nor can morality be legislated. 

Initial closeness and satisfaction are associated with relationship survival and longevity.

Early conflict and initial dissatisfaction, on the other hand, are associated with distancing oneself from the Other and the relationship instead of working on it.

A destiny believer would rather terminate the relationship and move on quickly to find his/her perfect match elsewhere.

 

Fate is the belief that the events and outcomes in life are predetermined by a divine or universal force. This concept has deep historical roots, prevalent across various ancient civilizations, including the belief in the Moirai, or Fates, in Greek mythology, who were three goddesses responsible for weaving and cutting the threads of human destiny. Philosophically, fate often contrasts with the notion of free will, leading to discussions on concepts such as fatalism, which suggests that individuals are powerless to alter their predetermined paths. The idea of theological fatalism posits that an all-knowing God has foreseen and predetermined all future events, a view exemplified in the teachings of John Calvin and his notion of predestination.

 

The ancient Greeks believed that human destiny was controlled by the Moirai, three goddesses also known as the Fates. The goddess Clotho was the “spinner,” who weaved, or spun, the threads of life; Lachesis was the “apportioner of lots” who measured the thread; and Atropos, the “inflexible,” who cut the thread. When a person was born, the Moirai spun the thread of his or her life and determined the course that life would take. Their decisions were inescapable, but not absolute. They could be influenced by the other gods, or on rare occasions, even humans themselves. Still, once the Moirai had made a final determination, no one, not even the gods, could change the outcome

 

The Greek philosopher Aristotle defined his view on fatalism by using logic in his work, De Interpretatione. Aristotle argued that all statements must be either true or false. As a result, of the two statements—a sea battle will take place tomorrow, or a sea battle will not take place tomorrow—one statement must be always be true and one must always be false. Therefore, if a sea battle does take place tomorrow, then it was inevitable that the battle was always going to take place. And if it did not occur, then it was never going to happen. Whether a battle happened or not, the outcome was inevitable and was not a result of chance or human decision.

 

Aristotle’s argument is known as logical fatalism. Another type of fatalism introduces the will of God into the equation. This view, called theological fatalism, argues that since God is all-knowing, he is aware of everything that has ever happened and will happen in the future. Because God knows what is going to happen, those events are already fated to occur just as he has foreseen them. An offshoot of this type of fatalism can be seen in the teachings of sixteenth-century Protestant reformer John Calvin. Calvin believed in predestination, the idea that God has complete control over everything that happens in the world and has already decided who will be saved and enter Heaven and who will be damned to Hell. In Calvinist thought, each human’s eternal fate has already been set by God before they were even born.

The idea that the future is already decided can lead to the idea that human actions have no meaning. After all, if it is fated that a person is going to die at age eighty, then that person can lead a life filled with risky, unhealthy behavior without fear of the consequences. To counter this view, many religions hold that humans have at least some degree of free will. In some cases, this free will allows for human actions to impact the future, but in accordance with an ultimate plan known only by God or other divine power.

A concept known as determinism incorporates free will into discussions of fate, but limits the true amount of freedom allowed to a person’s actions. According to this idea, humans do possess free will, but each action they take ultimately follows a pre-determined path towards an inevitable outcome. For example, a baseball player could choose to swing at the first pitch of an at bat, or let it go by. Whether he swings or doesn’t, his choices in batting will inevitably lead to the same outcome.

Surprisingly, a scientific view on fate has been found in the complicated field of quantum mechanics—the study of how matter and energy behave at the subatomic level. Scientists have observed particles separated by great distances that seem to instantaneously react to each other in a predetermined manner. This phenomenon has been documented in laboratory experiments, though scientists remain unsure of why it happens. Theories range from particles traveling back in time to the particles’ behavior being set in advance by some force that is not yet understood

1) The belief on fate or destiny among the Greek people. 2) Their Zest to watch tragedies which are based on Destiny is dominated. 3) ‘Tragic Flaw’ in Shakespeare tragedy 4) View against the influence of destiny or Fate in Shakespeare tragedy. 5) Is it possible to come out of the influence of Destiny in the modern world? Can modern people believe either on Destiny or in their own strength and ability.

Relationship in Daily Life
Aspect	Fate	Destiny	Interaction in Daily Life
Control	Out of your hands	Can be shaped	You may not choose the starting point, but you can choose the path forward
Choices	Irrelevant to outcome	Essential to outcome	Daily decisions help fulfill destiny even if fate sets the stage
Events	It happened because it was meant to happen	It is meant to become, if I work toward it	Unexpected events may feel like fate, but how you respond shapes your destiny
Belief	Passive acceptance	Active purpose	People often accept misfortunes as fate, but use hope in destiny to stay motivated
Examples	Getting stuck in traffic	Becoming a great leader	The traffic may be fate—but using that time to reflect on your goals? That fuels your destiny

Table 4 : Relation between Fate and Destin

In everyday life, fate is the hand you’re dealt—while destiny is how you play it. We experience both: moments that feel beyond our power and moments that ask for our will. Recognizing this balance helps us stay grounded yet ambitious.

 

Conclusion:

Suggestions: 1. The influence of destiny or fate is the belief that we believed with the happenings of various incidents but it cannot be proved scientifically. 2. The strong faith and belief on destiny leads us towards the success. 3. The belief of fate or destiny keeps human beings good and sincere. 4. The confidence can overlook the influence of fate and it leads us to great success. 5. Most of the fortunes occur in human life due to the determinations and hard work. 6. Modern man is still in dilemma of what he is to believe either “Destiny” or “Character”

Heraclitus (ca. 500 BCE) 18th c. by an anonymous Venetian sculptor, Victoria & Albert Museum London (image public domain)

By Walter Borden, M.D. –

“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” Thomas Jefferson

 “Character is destiny”, seemingly simple, yet enigmatic, written in the 5th century BCE by the Pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus. It is a powerful message for all peoples. Heraclitus is difficult to understand because his style is a combination of studied ambiguity.

Thales, the 5th century BCE pre-Socratic philosopher, introduced the concept laws of nature (physis), what we now call science. Anaximander, a student of Thales, observed: for every force in nature there is a reactive opposite force eventually leading to equilibrium. Applying this law in biological situations explains what is called homeostasis. Anaximander explained his observation by using the metaphor of a legal trial where opposing sides (adversaries or forces) argue their conflict before a judge and jury eventuating in conflict resolution, equilibrium and order. The ancient Greeks named this process after Hesiod’s Goddess of Justice, Dike, which became the Greek word for justice.

         Nature’s laws are universal principles that existed before the appearance of homo sapiens and do not change over time. They are primordial. Gravity is a good example. Another way of putting it echoes the Declaration of Independence’s “self-evident truth that all men are created equal”. Self-evident is a secular way of saying divine. “History is prologue” (Shakespeare, The Tempest act 1 scene 1) and engraved on our National Archives is another example. It articulates the law of causation.

Heraclitus observed another law of nature involved universal constant change, as expressed in his metaphor: “all things flow, nothing abides—you can’t step in the same river twice”. Anaximander’s for every force there is a counter force to equilibrium prepared the way for Heraclitus’ conception of a basic harmony, in the midst of the ongoing flux, because while changes swirled and clashed, there was Logos, logical reasoning, like judge and jury attuning and creating harmony establishing order. There was an attunement of the clashing forces. Attunement is a fundamental, or natural, law process, triggered by clashing forces. In the midst of the constant change, Logos attunes and rules, not irrationality and chaos. Reason establishes order.

As Homo sapiens evolved an inherent need for connection in the service of survival led to larger and larger groups. Maintaining order was essential. That’s when Logos law emerged in the human community. To be effective, whether dealing with a dyad of female and male or of a city, state, nation or international community the law has to include fundamental moral elements or human’s underlying primitive savagery would rip society apart. It has to be more than an abstract system of laws to be Justice. Morality infuses life, transforming law into Justice. As Alexander Hamilton later said, “As in religion, the word kills, the spirit gives life”. Morality is an inevitable element of human nature that enables order, that enables civilization. Unfortunately, morality cannot be put into words, cannot be put in written form meaningfully. Morality cannot be legislated, cannot be textualized. This has presented quite a problem to our culture that relies on the written word. I have long wondered if this issue was integrated in legal education.     

Beginning in the ninth-to-eighth century BCE, Greek population increased and the emergence of a cohesive underclass contributed to urbanization. People gravitated into towns for survival and protection but also increasingly for political functions, such as governance.

The family, clan, and tribe became subject to the community. This evolving urban center called “polis” also became an important economic unit, a center for trade and transactions as a civic entity. This polis (city-state) nurtured, educated, and served as the center and foundation of Hellenic community.  Concentration of population entailed inevitable conflicts that carried seeds of destruction, but also the emergence of the natural law of Logos, attunement processes that enabled community living.  

The developing polis nourished by the natural law of Logos and its process of attunement was the fertile soil where western democratic civilization took root. Although it was a time of class conflict, economic depressions, starvation, invasions, migrations, pestilence, and wars, Greece was emerging from her dark archaic past In the emergence we see the sprouting of philosophy, justice, science, and humanism—civilizing forces powered by the development of written language, music, poetry, art, and theatre. The eighth century is also the era of Homer and Hesiod—bards, who gave an echoing vibrant mythological history that sketched the character of civilization to be. Although some argue against Homeric authorship, the Iliad and the Odyssey are windows into centuries of history, bringing to life, through powerful, emotional poetic narrative, a people, their origins, their cultural heritage, and the principles that came to shape their society, and ours. From the mythic past Homer drew the first Greek theology, a primitive religion of Olympic gods—mirror images, flaws and all, of his epic mortal heroes. He addresses the basic issues of humankind’s origins, of creation, but also the history of our progress from primitive savagery to civilization. In the Iliad we see the origins of urban social organization in the early polis, with communal life centered in the agora, the open marketplace. Religion was practiced there, but also business, trade, and justice. Homer portrays a fundamental problem and the struggle to solve it through his poetic symbol of Achilles’ shield, which pictures two means of conflict resolution: On one side of the shield is a battle scene and on the other an agora, the communal marketplace where judges sit hearing the two sides of conflict before a jury of citizens. The shield symbolizes violent as against peaceful resolution, war versus a justice system. 

Hesiod, the second oldest epic Greek poet, came from a rural background more plebeian than the aristocratic Homer. Where Homer’s epics are intended for the elite, Hesiod speaks to a different audience and from another perspective. He writes and sings about and to his roots, the common people. He puts into song and verses the story of the poor and the grinding toil of the farmer. He gives voice to the underclass, to those who are economically and socially beaten down and exploited by the nobility. The conflict between the haves and have-nots had gone on all during the evolution of the city-state, through wars, famines, and migrations; continuing with the merging of families, tribes, and clans as well as a relatively brief flirtation with monarchy; and the gradual assumption of power by a ruling aristocracy.

Around 700-625 BCE, possibly a hundred and fifty years before Solon, Hesiod produced Works and Days, his hymns on humanity and its ills, in which he brings Justice, which he terms “Just Retaliation,” down from Olympus in the form of a goddess called Dike. Hesiod saw the need for justice here on Earth, for the oppressed, and he expressed it in theological, mythic terms.  

The hundred years or so after Hesiod were revolutionary, with an impact that created cultural waves that still carry us. During that century, Thales the 6th century BCE pre-Socratic philosopher, introduced the concept laws of nature, what we now call science. He said mythology is myth, stories to explain the unknown. Real understanding of the world comes from observation and logical reasoning to perceive the laws, or principles, by which nature is governed. Nature is ruled by laws

Thales suggested that under the seeming chaos of the likes of lightning, floods, thunder, tides, and drought there might be order reflecting knowable, fundamental laws of nature. His thinking had a profound impact on the development of physical science, but also on drama, the arts, medicine, psychology, law, and governance. Thales and Solon were colleagues. Solon applied Thales’ principles of scientific understanding to the polis (city-state). Rejecting tyranny, autocratic rule, mysticism and theocracy, Solon became the first political scientist and put government on a rational basis. 

         Thales’ student Anaximander observed in nature (physis) that every force provokes an opposite force tending towards equilibrium, a tendency towards   a balancing of forces, and borrowing the symbol for justice from Hesiod, he called this principle dike. Anaximander also had a mathematical bent; he borrowed from Pythagoras as well as from Hesiod.  Proportion and geometrical balance formed his perspective and can be seen in his application of mathematical principles to harmonics and reactions in nature. He introduced the concept of process, in which the balancing of competing and compensating forces involves interaction over time.                 

Anaximander’s audience was skeptical, so he used an explanation they could understand. Greek society at the time was litigious. Anaximander explained using a legal metaphor of a trial where opposing advocates(forces) argue before a judge and jury to resolve conflict. The end result is equilibrium, in nature, order in the courtroom. 

It is not by chance that Anaximander used legal language and refers to trials, debating adversaries, and judges. Since the time of Homer and Hesiod, the Greek legal system developed in a symbiotic relationship with evolving science.  Hesiod defined justice (dike) as retribution from the gods—an eye for an eye, so to speak (a notion not dissimilar from some modern versions). Yet buried in Homer is the idea that there is a more fundamental law than that of gods and that even they are not above it—not even Zeus. 

In the more than three hundred years from Homer and Hesiod to Solon’s ascendancy, a weak monarchy gave way to a controlling powerful aristocracy, which in turn was challenged by a swelling and dissatisfied disenfranchised lower class. Class conflict worsened as society became more complicated, and it was compounded by the growth of a middle class of merchants, traders, and businessmen. Burdensome, autocratic, serving the wealthy, exploiting the underclasses, justice was an ongoing contentious theme. The result was a series of coups by tyrants and cycles of retaliatory violence. 

A significant characteristic of Greek religion was its family structure. From Homer, we learn the Olympian family had its rules, and even Zeus had to abide by them. There was law more fundamental than the gods; there was a power above the gods—the basis of the rule of law. This is also the basis of what the later Romans balanced as a fundamental maxim in Lex Rex or the “the Law is King” rather than Rex Lex as “the King is the Law.” The best of Western Civilzation and all other wise global cultures have strived to maintain this principle, although it hasn’t been easy given the greed for power in certain flawed individuals whose toxic characters never develop beyond infantile selfishness.

 As the Olympian family lost its religious influence, this power for some in the sixth century became nature and natural law—science. To others it became human law—justice. To others it became philosophy—the nature of knowledge. These natural philosophers were joined by insightful tragedians who realized that the Olympian family was the reflection of the human family, and that the gods were projections from the minds of mortals. These thinkers, the philosophers and tragic dramatists, saw through mythology to what it said about human nature; they looked into the mind, identifying underlying principles and patterns. It is their insights, later developed and joined with medicine that contributes to modern psychiatry. 

Solon visited with Thales, which event became an interesting account immortalized by Plutarch. Solon became the first political scientist, separated church and state, drafted a constitution and legal code that articulated the rule of law, equality before the law, and instituted a public court system. I would like to emphasize that it was Solon who introduced the rule of law to governance. Solon’s constitution and legal code has been called The Athenian Magna Carta. Solon took Anaximander’s metaphor and made it real. One hundred years later, when Solon’s justice system was under threat, Aeschylus produced the Oresteia, which made democratic justice immortal. 

Across the Aegean in Ephesus Heraclitus, another Milesian, extended laws of nature to include human nature, and observed a defect in the prevailing reliance on written law. He said there is at least a germ of fundamental morality in human nature. Indeed morality in the laws of human nature enabled homo sapiens to emerge from savagery and live in civilizedsociety. Without morality humans could not live together in any sizable community without tearing each other apart. To Heraclitus humankind was basically savage. Humane law, that is natural law, serves as a bulwark keeping underlying savagery at bay, of keeping the beast locked up, allowing civilization. Without morality the might is right principle would prevail (autocracy in one form or another) leading eventually to reversion to savagery. Modern technology compounds savagery. Statutory law does not include a moral element, nor can morality be legislated. 

 

Heraclitus observed that another law of nature involved universal constant change, as expressed in his metaphor: “all things flow, nothing abides—you can’t step in the same river twice”. Anaximander’s for every force there is a counter force to equilibrium prepared the way for Heraclitus’ conception of a basic harmony, consistent and unchangeable in the midst of the ongoing flux, because while changes swirled and clashed, there was Logos, logical reasoning, like judge and jury, creating harmony establishing order. There was an attunement of the clashing forces. Attunement is a fundamental, or natural, law. In the midst of the constant change, Logos attunes and rules, not irrationality and chaos. Reason establishes order.

As homo sapiens evolved an inherent need for connection in the service of survival led to larger and larger groups. Maintaining order was essential. That’s when Logos law emerged in the human community. To be effective, whether dealing with a dyad of female and male or of a city, state, nation or international community the law has to include fundamental moral elements or human’s underlying savagery would rip society apart. It has to be more than an abstract system of laws to be Justice. Morality infuses life, transforming law into Justice. As Alexander Hamilton later said, “As in religion, the word kills, the spirit gives life”. Morality is an inevitable element of human nature that enables order, that enables civilization. Morality cannot be legislated, cannot be textualized. This presents quite a problem to our culture that relies on the written word. I have long wondered if morality was integrated in legal education. 

This brings up a crucial question How are Law and Justice related? If we mean solely statutory law as the “textualists” believe, autocracy (power rules) prevails, and ends in savagery. History provides examples: Hitler gained power by manipulating German statutory law. He gained power legally, and in the process stripped away the civilizing cover letting loose the beast of humankind’s savage heart. I believe we have another example in an immediate past president who exploited weaknesses in textual laws to manipulate his way to wealth and power. Like the charismatic Hitler, he hid his own beast behind masterful image making, but one which only appeals to weak characters. 

Our founding fathers relied on written law to legalize slavery, and later to ensconce it in the Dred Scott case. This points to the need for the moral and ethical principles of natural law. For Justice to be effective civilized society needs a combination of statutory law and natural law. Actually our constitution provides for this if the constitution is considered a living institution as originally intended, despite the claims of the “textualists”. We need a constitution with character. That means the steadfast recognition of the unwritten natural(moral) law, defined as the common sense of what’s right. Humans as property is not right, separating children from parents without cause is not right, gender, racial, ethnic and class discrimination is not right, and on and on and on. In other words, for real social justice common sense morality must be factored in to statutory law. This means that textualists would have to recognize commonsense morality despite its being unwritten. And it may be that if it were written, put into statutory words, it would quickly be exploited by the legal word masters. There is a long history of dictators and interest groups gaining power by exploiting the text of statutes.

The writers of our constitution did have common sense. I wish textualists would look at the text of the Declaration of Independence: “self-evident truth that all men are created equal”. Heraclitus defined Wisdom as telling the truth and following nature. 

Psychiatry does not define (normal) character. It speaks through the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Method of Mental Disorders) which focuses on disorders that often afflict humans. That focus is not surprisingly blurred considering the complexity of mental functioning. It is, however, easier to look at prominent negative behaviors such as criminality if it appears to be an established, and apply the label anti-social character or personality. Actually there are many persons who achieve success by a pattern of criminality, and who hide behind clever image making and are never seen officially as “criminal”. There are persons who do not respect rules, including laws, indeed may get a sense of satisfaction by getting away with law breaking. If we add lack of empathy, the disrespect of the personhood of others, indeed may even get satisfaction by humiliating others, we have what might be called an anti-social, sadistic personality, and if we add material and narcissistic greed we have an accurate picture of the character assessment of our immediate past president, twice-impeached and indicted several times with likely more to come. He is a narcissistic, sadistic psychopath in the long experience of this psychiatrist – a licensed and board-certified professional for many decades. Sadly, this person mentioned here whose character is deeply flawed has not been held accountable for most of his selfish life – a deep stain on our nation. Why anyone would enable and protect him remains a mystery at present.

Character is destiny. What we experience in life is not due to fate or luck, but to how we live our values, and especially how consistently. Considering the medical and psychologic principle of “history is prologue”, character is the result of a complex stepwise-development under the influence of bio-psycho-social forces that become more pronounced in whichever direction we live our lives, for good or for bad, for constructive or destructive results in ourselves and those around us even if we do not always see the consequences.

Methodology:

 To prepare this paper secondary data is referred and analytical historical and comparative methods are used. Oedipus Rex also is hailed by many critics and scholars as Sophocles’ masterpiece. It particular drew the admiration of Aristotle in the Poetics. It deals with the story of Oedipus in which he rules Thebes with his wife Jocasta. When the city is wasted by a deadly plague, he learns to his horror that he is the murderer of his father Laius and the husband of his mother Jocasta. He blinds his eyes and Jocasta hangs herself. The play indicates the Greek conception of human impotence in the presence of destiny which may hurl a man, for no fault of his own, from heights of prosperity to utter misery.

 

Findings:

You don’t “have a fate”. Fate is a Greek God who drops things in your path to test you. You will experience the vicissitudes of fate. You may be fated to run into your girlfriend on the street. When someone says you may meet your fate, they may mean the vicissitude is something minor, they may mean the vicissitude is a major life changer (the love of your life) , they may mean you meet your final fate — the last in a long series of interventions by fate to change your direction. Your final fate changes your direction by stopping you from living. Your final fate is the last thing that happens to you before you arrive at your destiny.

You do have a destiny, One, and only one. Destiny is the pair of rails you’re riding unstoppably towards your inevitable Destiination. Destiny, Destiination. And, by the way, every single mortal’s destiny is destruction of some kind. We are all doomed. Destiny means how will you die and when you die will it be glorious, pitiable, commonplace, and will it be remembered or not, and honored or not. We all have to face death. We can face it on our knees, afraid and in denial, or we can face it standing up, with courage and acceptance.

Obviously, destiny can also mean other kinds of smaller deaths meaning you stop changing and become the thing you were going to be. But that’s really an illusion of storytelling, because nobody stops changing. Your destiny may be to be the President of the United States, but unless you’re assassinated, you’re going to be something after you’re the President of the United States. For example, George W. Bush became a painter, and Barack Obama became a Netflix producer. Your job, however historic, is not your destiny. Future, in the lower left quadrant, is the member that doesn’t quite fit. We don’t really know what it is. It’s all in our heads.

On reflection, you can think of smaller destinations as smaller destinies, of a sort. I may go to London in the spring, in which case London will be my Destiination. And a job is a kind of Destiination, so I suppose you could consider it a kind of destiny, as long as you realize it’s a trifling use of a big word. In the larger sense, destiny is only something you can ever see in hindsight. You have no idea what’s coming for you. The best you can do is pick a direction, and stay on the path.

Another thing to think about: we don’t have a choice in fate. Fate happens to us and we deal with it according to our characters. Fate is obstacles. We very much have a choice in Destiny, What direction we’re going in, what paths we will take to get there.

Conclusion

Fate or  destiny are powerful concepts that have guided human thought for centuries. They speak to the belief that certain aspects of our lives are predetermined or guided by a higher power, unseen forces, or a grand cosmic design. While fate is often seen as an unavoidable path that we are bound to follow, destiny can be interpreted as a goal or purpose we are meant to fulfill—yet one that may still require our choices, effort, and courage.

 fate may shape the starting point, but destiny is shaped by how we respond. Life is a delicate balance between what is beyond our control and what lies within our power. While we cannot always choose what happens to us, we can choose how we respond—and in that space, we carve our destiny.

Ultimately, fate may deal the cards, but how we play them reveals our character and fulfills our destiny. A life of purpose is not just lived by surrendering to fate, but by walking boldly toward the future, guided by vision, courage, and meaning.

Fate and destiny have long inspired philosophical reflection, religious belief, and literary exploration. These concepts invite us to consider the extent to which our lives are scripted versus self-authored. Fate is often perceived as a fixed thread in the fabric of life, suggesting that some events are inevitable—beyond human control. In contrast, destiny can be seen not merely as an endpoint but as a calling—something we are drawn toward, with the freedom to either pursue or ignore it.

20 quotes by Dr. Havugimana Alexis on fate and destiny,

1. “Blessings may delay, but they never forget the path — such is the nature of hope’s origin.”

2. “The path toward who you’re meant to be isn’t blocked by what you go through — it’s shaped by it.”

3. “Reaching the end doesn’t mean you’ve failed — it means you’ve waited with wisdom.”

4. “Your true self is never hidden by the trials you face — it grows through them.”

5. “What you cannot change will change you.”

6. “God’s timing is above human understanding — it is never late.”

7. “You may not know how it will end, but you are walking toward where you’re meant to arrive.”

8. “Your dreams are signs of your destiny — don’t let your past silence them.”

9. “What happened to you isn’t your ending — it’s just a chapter in the story of someone destined for greatness.”

10. “A life with purpose never lacks direction, even when the journey is confusing.”

11. “You don’t need to know everything before beginning the journey — purpose leads the way.”

12. “Fate is what you didn’t choose, but destiny is how you accept and build from it.”

13. “Falling is not failure — it’s a lesson for those heading toward their destiny.”

14. “Every step you take tells a story, even when you don’t yet see where it leads.”

15. “He whom God has written a future for will not be destroyed by what was never meant for him.”

16. “You may be born without full understanding, but you are walking a journey toward lasting meaning.”

17. “Destiny is like lightning: you may not know where it begins, but it lights up your path ahead.”

18. “Without doubt, you were created for something — and it’s your task to reach it through effort and patience.”

19. “Your life may be tough, but it holds seeds of deep meaning and shared humanity.”

20. “Fate begins without your knowledge; destiny is realized when you finally understand the purpose of your journey.” 

References

ü An Oxford Guide on Shakespeare, Stanley Wells and Lena Cowen Orlin, Pp, 213 to 224. 2. Aristoltle’s Poetics, Edited by Ramaji lal 3. Greek Tragedy: Edited by Erich Segal 4. Oedipus Rex : Sophocles- A verse translation by David Mulroy, 2011. 5. Macbeth: Shakespeare- Edited by M N Sinha, 1999. Page no 340 to 343

ü Character is destiny”, seemingly simple, yet enigmatic, written in the 5th century BCE by the Pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus. It is a powerful message for all peoples. Heraclitus is difficult to understand because his style is a combination of studied ambiguity.

ü Critchlow, Hannah. The Science of Fate Why Your Future Is More Predictable Than You Think. Hodder & Stoughton, 2019.

ü Musser, George. “The Quantum Mechanics of Fate.” Nautilus, 30 Jan. 2014, nautil.us/issue/9/time/the-quantum-mechanics-of-fate. Accessed 27 May 2019.

ü Rice, Hugh. “Fatalism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 5 Dec. 2018, plato.stanford.edu/entries/fatalism/#5. Accessed 27 May 2019.

ü Rochberg, Francesca. “Fate and Divination in Mesopotamia.” In the Path of the Moon: Babylonian Celestial Divination and Its Legacy. Brill, 2010, pp. 19-30.

ü Wasson, Donald L. “Oedipus the King.” World History Encyclopedia, 24 Jan. 2018, www.worldhistory.org/Oedipus‗the‗King/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.