Quotes About Determinism

You cannot of yourself move your arm or alter your position, situation, posture, do to other men good or evil, or effect the least change in the world.

Obviously if any actions, even a lunatic's, can be causeless, determinism is done for. If the chain of causation can be broken for a madman, it can be broken for a man.

Nothing in nature is by chance... Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.

It is a question of fact, whether the influence of motives be fixed by laws of nature, so that they shall always have the same effect in the same circumstances.

The illusion that humans possess free will is compounded by the inherent randomness of the universe. Chaos disguised as freedom of choice...

History abhors determinism but cannot tolerate chance.

Life is a concoction of fatal determinism and the footsteps of us all.

Free will, determinism, meaning, existence, etc. are academic problems, not problems in life.

The cynics are correct the sense of freewill is only that feeling which we have when we take the necessitated option that most appeals to us.

On materialist principles, our minds are limited to the material constitution of our brains (minds transcending brains are simply not an option for materialism), and our brains are simply more complicated arrangements of balls going down inclined planes and coins being tossed. Thus we are not in control, we are not free.

sociobiologists are not merely willing, but devoted, "Slaves of the Gene."" They believe that an organism-a man, say-is epiphenomenal to his genes: an effect, not a cause. Or at least, they believe that a man is about as epiphenomenal to his genes, as his singlet (for example) is to him. Wilson spoke for all sociobiologists, when he said: "An organism is only DNA's way of making more DNA."24 Fourth:

Chaos: when the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.

As I have said so many times, God doesn't play dice with the world.

God does not play dice [with the universe]. [Ger., Gott wurfelt nicht.]

You believe in a God who plays dice, I in complete law and order.

God Almighty does not throw dice.

God, our genes, our environment, or some stupid programmer keying in code at an ancient terminal - there's no way free will can ever exist if we as individuals are the result of some external cause.

I can't believe that God plays dice with the universe.

[The materialist] thinks me a slave because I am not allowed to believe in determinism. I think [the materialist] a slave because he is not allowed to believe in fairies.

I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.

I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.

The fallacy the economic determinists have tied around our collective neck, and which we now need to cast off, is the belief that economics determines all land-use. This is simply not true. An innumerable host of actions and attitudes, comprising perhaps the bulk of all land relations, is determined by the land-users' tastes and predilections, rather than by his purse.

A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will's freedom after it.

Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws. Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.