Today’s video will answer a comment’s question, what’s the difference between determinism vs.
fatalism vs. predeterminism. To correctly discuss the important question of determinism
vs. free will, it’s essential first to understand different concepts of determinism in philosophy,
so I’ll outline what each of these three means and the differences between them.
First, the determines by itself today typically refers to something called causal determinism.
Causal determinism states that events within a given paradigm are bound by causality
in such a way that prior states completely determine any state (of an object or event).
The state of the universe right now determines what happens next regardless of our will.
Those that accept causal determinism believe that
there is nothing in the universe that is uncaused or self-caused.
For the most part, casual determinists are
physicalists, meaning all there is to the universe and reality,
at least we know of, are nature, and the laws of nature that are unchanging and rigidly bind us.
French scholar Pierre Simon Laplace gave one of the earliest and most straightforward examples
of what we mean by causal determinism, an idea now referred to as Laplace’s Demon.
In 1814 Laplace imagined a vast intellect, later renamed to ‘demon’ by his contemporaries,
that knew the positions and velocities of all particles and understood all the forces of nature
and computational power. Theoretically, this demon would know what would happen next in any
given situation as it could do the calculations needed to predict where each thing would end up.
If you believe our minds are made up of atoms and are a part of nature,
just like everything else in the universe, Laplace's Demon will know precisely what
you will do or think next, no matter how much you try to trick it or will it away.
Of course, nothing like Laplace's demon exists today, and such a thing may not even be possible.
The important thing to understand is that if such a thing could exist and that all
events in the present determine the next subsequent event, causal determinism is true.
This is different than predeterminism, which states that all events are determined far in
advance. Not only are all events caused by initial conditions, if we or Laplace’s Demon
knew all of the conditions, but our entire future could be known.
Predeterminists accept that what will happen to you in 10 years
is going to happen whether you like it or not.
Just to be clear, just because predeterminism
may not exist doesn’t mean causal determinism does not.
Sometimes you’ll hear arguments that quantum mechanics, the best current
description of energy and matter at small scales, proves that determinism is false due
to the unpredictability of particles fluctuating in and out of existence.
If an interpretation of quantum mechanics in which not knowing anything for sure is true,
that only proves that predeterminism is wrong, not causal determinism.
Yes, perhaps a Laplace’s Demon-type entity will never be able to predict the future
with complete accuracy due to indeterminacy in quantum mechanics. But that doesn’t mean
we’re no longer bound by cause and effect and rigid laws of nature.
It’s possible that predeterminism is a bad description of reality,
while causal determinism is a correct one.
Finally, there’s fatalism, a broader family of related philosophical doctrines that refer
to the view that we are powerless to do anything other than what we actually do. Fatalism includes
causal determinism, among other views. Theories within fatalism include omniscience fatalism,
logical fatalism, and physical fatalism or causal determinism, which we just covered.
Omniscience fatalism basically means that an all-knowing being or beings determine
all or part of our lives and foresee the future. This divine being may
know what will happen in the future but doesn’t actively participate in our lives.
As in Judeo Christian God, can and does actively participate to bring about events and miracles.
Logical fatalism is the idea that future events must be determined
because anything we say about them now must be true or false. Therefore,
changing our fates would require changing the past, which is assumed to be impossible.
So far example, I may say a comet will hit earth sometime in the year 2021. Either a comet
will hit Earth during that time, or it won’t. One of those two things will happen for sure.
Now it’s fated or necessary that a comet will hit Earth or is not going to hit Earth.
No acts are free because before they were performed,
it was already true that they would be performed.
Then finally, there’s causal determinism which we just discussed at the top of the video.
So are any of these real and good descriptions of reality? It turns out we have very good reason to
accept causal determinism so make sure to subscribe for more videos about that below.
Predeterminism will depend on a final theory of everything, of matter and energy,
which we don’t have now. There’s no coherent argument for theological fatalism at this time and
there are some issues with logical fatalism but for the most part, no one cares about that one.
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