First of all I am a follower of determinism, of course not by my own free will
, and I made a post regarding this but it was more specific. Reading this thread made me want to bring some issues to light.
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Originally Posted by Hektore
I'm going to deal with each of these determinism one at a time so I don't have to write a monster post, and spend all day responding to this one topic. I'm going to tackle logical determinism first. If I understand this correctly, logical determinism states that because factual statements about the future must be true or not true, then the future must already be decided today. For example, if I use the proposition "Tomorrow it is going rain.", the proposition must be either true or not true. More importantly it is true or not true today, when I make the statement. Therefore, the future (tomorrow) must already be decided to make the statement true or not true.
What we are dealing with, from what I've read is the "law of the excluded middle" which claims that a statement like "Tomorrow it will rain or it will not rain" (A or not A) is necesarily true simply by the form of the statement. The statement "A or not A." is true because it encompases all truth values for A, it does not make a claim to the truth value of "A" or "not A" only that one of them must be true. This is because logic supposes that "A" combined with "not A" encompass all possibilities that exist in the universe and that all statements have a truth value.
Why is it supposed that all statements have a truth value?
I see no reason for this assumption. When there is no absolute definition for a word (ex. tall) then there is no absolute truth value for a statemnt that uses the word (ex. "Jon is tall"). These statements are what we call opinions, because opinion explicitly means a statement that does not have an absolute truth value. Predictive statements fall into the same category, they can not said to be true because the future has not happened yet, there is no absolute truth value that exists for predictive statemtents in the present.
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So far, it would seem that we cannot change the past. The past is set in stone as they say. So, in two days from now, tomorrow will be the past. Therefore, all events in time become set in stone. You don't know now whether its going to rain or not, but whatever it is, it is the logical outcome of the universe. It is unchangeable.
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Originally Posted by DaveMatrix
Dilbert seems to subscribe to the generative philosophy, cognitive sciences, or evolutionary psychology side of determinism. This states that free will does not exist, it is merely an illusion. This illusion of free will is experienced due to the generation of infinite behaviour from the interaction of finite-deterministic set of rules and parameters. Thus the unpredictability of the emerging behaviour from deterministic processes leads to a perception of free will, even though free will as an ontological entity does not exist.
I don't agree with this philosophy, or perhaps I don't want to. I would prefer to believe that our future is what we make of it. Inanimate matter may follow the rules a physics, but we are living beings capable of making our own choices. I suppose I adhere to several philosophies, in the Buddhist doctrine of Dependent Origination, which states that every phenomenon is conditioned by, and depends on, the phenomena that it is not. In simpler terms , everything is affected by every other thing that has life. If you could travel back in time, one minute action would seem to affect everything to follow.
Biological determinism seems to be likely also, since my father was an alcoholic, and two of my sisters seem to be the same way, I would have to say that genetics also play a role. You may be more likely to behave in a certain manner depending on your genetic make up, at least partially deciding your future.
In the end it may be a combination of infinitely complex factors, thrown together with chaos theory, which seems highly likely. I still agree with the notion that the future is made up partially of the sum of your decisions today, combined with the chaos factor, or wild card anomalies. Its a strange mix of genetics, anomalous factors, and the sum of your decisions, IMHO.
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It is instinct to resist determinism because it takes away control of your life. I don't blame you for not wanting to think of the world in such a way, but its very possible that this is the nature of the world. It reminds me of the Matrix trilogy. Neo didn't like the idea of fate, because it took away his control. However, time and time again in the movie, you see that everything happened according to fate. Those movies were probably the best examples of fate and determinism ever. I especially like the conversation with the Merovingian.
As far as illusion of choice goes it reminds me of a quote:
"A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills."
You make the choices in your life, but you don't decide who YOU are. It all comes to things outside of your control. Who you are is determined by genetics and environment. These will ultimately influence every decision in your life. Don't come to me saying how you grew up in the same family as your brother and you have roughly the same genetics, yet he turned out to be a bum and you turned out fine. There is no way to account for life experience. While the environment and genetics are roughly the same, the conversations and interactions will be mostly different.
I feel that if you go back in time the beginning of your life and you changed nothing, just observed. Everything would happen the same way. Which means even if we go back 20 years from now and your dead, if nothing is changed it will all happen the same way. If nothing is changed, there is no reason why you would have changed your life in any way.
We are all bound by fate, but no one knows what the future may hold. So, while I know that my existence is dependent on every prior event leading up to this moment, because if one minor change occurred I might not exist, and I also know that every decision I make is only because that is what is in my nature or is what I was taught, I still enjoy life. I ride the wave of the universe and I act according to what I have come to understand is the best way. Its all I can do.
It also allows you to look at people differently. For example, in theory, it erases hate. If a man grows up to a point where he deludes himself into thinking that he can kill himself and 32 other people and still compare himself to Jesus. I know that he is a monster, but one that is still a product of the world.
I cannot expect the families grieving to be able to understand that he is in a sense just as much a victim as anyone else, if I were them I would probably hate him for a long time. It is human nature, not matter how much I use reasoning, it would be hard to overcome those guttural reactions to have someone to blame.
Anyhow, I'm getting off topic. If some of you come to realize that determinism may hold some truths, and this bothers you. Don't let it. Just realize that you are a part of the universe and a lot of chains of cause and effect lead to you being the moment your in right now. If one variable was off in the equation, you wouldn't exist. As the late great Kurt Vonnegut says, "Everything is alright, and everybody has to do exactly what he does."