scientific determinism

Question 1

key terms - scientific determinism & physiology

Answer 1

scientific determinism - form of hard determinism which holds all events are determined by antecedent events so no freedom
physiology - biology of how living organisms function

Question 2

scientific determinism

Answer 2

• cosmic microwave background is the oldest light in universe from 378k years after big bang
• when looking at picture showing cosmic background radiation it determines universe close to 13.77billion years old
• complete sequence of cause & effect which begins with big bang
• sociology, psychology, physiology used to study brain & proves no escape from that we don’t have free will

Question 3

pierre-simon laplace

Answer 3

• “we ought then to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its anterior state”
• when we look at physical nature we see a chain of causality that spreads outwards & backwards from any one physical event
• there’s no gaps in that chain of causation into which a mental input could be inserted this means that the physical world appears to be a seamless interlocking whole with no scope for human free will to make a difference

Question 4

can we avoid scientific determinism - can be avoided if laws of nature are probabilistic

Answer 4

• science generally operates by gathering experience mental evidence & observed facts and seeks best available interpretation of them
• history shows newer theories replace older ones as our knowledge increases so in future what we currently regard as ‘laws of nature’ in all likelihood will be replaced

Question 5

can we avoid scientific determinism - can be avoided if quantum is indeterminate

Answer 5

• if it can be shown there are entities that aren’t completely governed by laws of nature then we have have reason to reject scientific determinism
• matter at quantum scale appears to be different from its appearance at ‘macro’ scale we experience
• how this affects events at macro scale isn’t clear but if there’s interdeterminism somewhere in matter then determinism seems to be fake

Question 6

what is the chaos theory

Answer 6

• example of random/chance events producing large-scale changes through ‘butterfly effect’ but this has nothing to do with quantum indeterminacy or any other kind as chaotic systems only give appearance of randomness
• merely so complex that they cannot be computed but still deterministic