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Originally Posted by asaris
I'm not a physics student, but doesn't the Uncertainty Principle merely state that we cannot both know the velocity and position of a particle exactly? That is, isn't it an epistemological principle, not an ontological principle? I mean, I hate to give determinists any extra ammunition, but I'd just as soon be accurate about this sort of thing.
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From what I've read, I think you are right in a sense. However, their stance is that the reason you can't know the exact velocity and position of a particle exactly is because they hold that its random. Einstein was saying that if we knew all the forces that acted on these particles, one could know the exact position and velocity. However, they held that there is no way to know and there is no cause for their movements, it is completely random.
Nothing else in the universe acts without cause, I find it more probable that it is just beyond our current technology to measure, or perhaps beyond our understanding.
Also, why is it you would hate to give determinists any extra ammunition? Is their some great flaw in Determinism that perhaps you could enlighten us on? Just curious thats all, its something that I have spent a lot of time thinking on.
Here are two of my favorite quotes relating to determinism:
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"Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper." - Albert Einstein
"A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills." - Schopenhauer