What is Determinism?

This video lecture discusses very briefly the meaning of determinism. It specifically addresses the question, “What is Determinism?”.

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Thanks! PHILO-notes

[WakingReality]

For me, what this does is it shows that everything in the universe is one connected (for a lack of better words) “organism”.

[marvinedwards]

Fortunately, determinism doesn't actually change anything. Assume we live in a universe of perfectly reliable cause and effect. Everything that happens, and everything that we choose to do, was causally necessary from any prior point in the past. Everything was always going to happen just exactly as it does happen.

This means that my choice was always going to be exactly as it was. It also means that it was always going to be me that would be making that choice. And it means that each thought that I had while considering one option, and then another option, and so forth, was always going to happen exactly like that. And then I would choose the option that best fit my own goals and my own reasons.

That fits the common understanding of a voluntary choice. And it also fits our common understanding of deterministic causation. So, where is the difference?

[caricue]

As far as I can tell, the only empirical basis for determinism is the fact that you can do the same experiment over and over and always get the same results. This leads many people to conclude that there is only one way for the universe to unfold, but what is really being demonstrated is that we live in a universe that features reliable causation. Any other idea that comes with the concept of determinism is basically mysticism.

[felixhadiyanto]

The distinction between Determinism, Fatalism and Predetermine must be Compared, isn’t it ?

[omiorahman]

wow thats an interesting idea.
what if the universe had multiple options(or multiverse ) then everything would be complex.

[credterfe]

If determinism (in its macro sense affecting the universe from beginning til now ) is true, where (what, who) is the first cause? If you reject infinite regress, there must be a first cause which is uncaused. Now if the first cause can pop up out of nowhere unexplained, so can concurrent events. Causes can appear out of no where unexplained, giving respective effects . If this is true, then determinism is false.

[mofeiyang]

1:55 law debunked by uncertainty principle

[aliptera]

Determinism is debunked. Let's take for example a simple mechanism, the double pendulum. It's movement is chaotical, very strongly dependant on initial condition. The physical world is modeled by mathematics, but the map is not the territory, mathematical laws are not a perfect "copy" of the physical world. The model of double pendulum is a set of ordinary differential equation, with mass and length of each pendulum segments as variables. Since we cannot measure the mass and length with infinite precision, and there are always physical interactions on the real pendulum that are not taken into account by the model (e.g. variation of gravitation due to moon and solar tides, temperature, pressure, cosmic rays, etc), the model of double pendulum will not behave as the real pendulum.Our concepts about real world are simplified for our understanding. Relationship between physical phenomena are modeled by mathematics if there is a clear relationship. Like F=m*a. Where we didn't find the relationship we're saying it's random. Like when this or that particular atom will decay.

[ligidaykurin]

Determinism is just an atheistic philosophy

[miyu]

Why are we actually arguing about this. This is nonsense. Philosophers have too much time on their hands. We're talking about genetics and behaviour. It's interesting - but determines absolutely nothing. We don't need to know one way or the other to make decisions, in fact, decision don't care where they come from. This is all so stupid.