Quotes About Determinism

Hey, chaotic trajectories are just as deterministic as any other kind.

Their marriage decayed with the exponential determinism of a radioactive isotope and still he sought her out, and accepted her conditions.

Psychological determinism asserts that every thought and feeling we have and every action we perform is caused by events in the past.

Spinoza is more than happy with this conclusion: he is a thorough-going determinist 'Experience tells us clearly that men believe themselves to be free simply because they are conscious of their actions and unconscious of the causes whereby these actions are determined; further, it is plain that the dictates of the mind are simply another name for the appetites that vary according to the varying state of the body.

Les inégalités devant la culture ne sont nulle part aussi marquées que dans le domaine où, en l'absence d'un enseignement organisé, les comportements culturels obéissent aux déterminismes sociaux plus qu'à la logique des goûts et des engouements individuels.

While economics is about how people make choice, sociology is about how they don't have any choice to make. Bertrand Russell

If that enabled us to predict the succeeding situation with the same approximation, that is all we require, and we should say that the phenomenon had been predicted, that it is governed by the laws.

One of the reasons that most literary artists are contemptuous of Sigmund Freud—whose thought Vladimir Nabokov once characterized as no more than private parts covered up by Greek myths—is that his extreme determinism is felt to be immensely untrue to the rich complexity of life, with its twists and turns and manifold surprises.

If a person did not have free will, how could he be held accountable for the bad things he did?

Those who wish to preserve political power structures are often very keen on genetic determinism.

DOES THE PROGRESS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE TEND TO GIVE ANY ADVANTAGE TO THE OPINION OF NECESSITY (OR DETERMINISM) OVER THAT OF THE CONTINGENCY OF EVENTS AND THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL? NO. - ESSAY FOR THE ERANUS CLUB ON SCIENCE AND FREE WILL

this determinism says that in every case the result is determined by the previous condition of the subject we are looking at. Our free will at the best is like that of Lucretius's atoms — which at quite uncertain times and places deviate in an uncertain manner from their course. the atoms can swerve so there's always the small possibility even for air molecules of not being forced to follow the determined laws. - ESSAY FOR THE ERANUS CLUB ON SCIENCE AND FREE WILL

it struck me as an operational way to define free will, in a way that allowed you to reconcile free will with determinism. The system is deterministic, but you can't say what it's going to do next.

However, I would argue that there is one simple question that implies all of the above questions and gets to the heart of the issues concerning the ball's motion. That one single question is the following: Does the ball have any choice?

What can be explained can also be predicted, if one knows the initial events and the laws covering their succession.

It's not clear in physics why you can't see the future.

Most of us assume that human beings have free will. However, . . . [we] are very much conditioned by our species, culture, family, and by the past in general. . . . It is rare for a human being to have free will. . . . (140)

En cualquier caso, permítame indicarle que se olvida usted del principio entrópico: no hay destino prefijado, sino un mono aporreando las teclas de una máquina de escribir.

Libet's experiment illustrates how the (neuro-)determinist case against freedom is based on a very distorted conception of what constitutes an action in everyday

So it is no surprise that we cannot find free will in this isolated movement in a laboratory, if we treat it as an isolated movement.

The argument of this book is that we, and all other animals, are machines created by our genes. Like successful Chicago gangsters, our genes have survived, in some cases for millions of years, in a highly competitive world. This entitles us to expect certain qualities in our genes. I shall argue that a predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness.

Consciousness does not determine life, but life determines consciousness

Nicht das Bewußtsein bestimmt das Leben, sondern das Leben bestimmt das Bewußtsein.

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