Determinism

Determinism is the philosophical view that events are completely determined by previously existing
causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and
sometimes overlapping motives and considerations. Like eternalism, determinism focuses on particular
events rather than the future as a concept. The opposite of determinism is indeterminism, or the view that
events are not deterministically caused but rather occur due to chance. Determinism is often contrasted with
free will, although some philosophers claim that the two are compatible. [1][2]

Historically, debates about determinism have involved many philosophical positions and given rise to
multiple varieties or interpretations of determinism. One topic of debate concerns the scope of determined
systems. Some philosophers have maintained that the entire universe is a single determinate system, while
others identify more limited determinate systems. Another common debate topic is whether determinism
and free will can coexist; compatibilism and incompatibilism represent the opposing sides of this debate.

Determinism should not be confused with the self-determination of human actions by reasons, motives, and
desires. Determinism is about interactions which affect our cognitive processes in our life.[3] It is about the
cause and the result of what we have done. Cause and result are always bound together in cognitive
processes. It assumes that if an observer has sufficient information about an object or human being, that
such an observer might be able to predict every consequent move of that object or human being.
Determinism rarely requires that perfect prediction be practically possible.

Varieties
"Determinism" may commonly refer to any of the following viewpoints.

Causal

Causal determinism, sometimes synonymous with historical determinism (a sort of path dependence), is
"the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of
nature."[4] However, it is a broad enough term to consider that:[5]

...One's deliberations, choices, and actions will often be necessary links in the causal chain that
brings something about. In other words, even though our deliberations, choices, and actions
are themselves determined like everything else, it is still the case, according to causal
determinism, that the occurrence or existence of yet other things depends upon our
deliberating, choosing and acting in a certain way.

Causal determinism proposes that there is an unbroken chain of prior occurrences stretching back to the
origin of the universe. The relation between events and the origin of the universe may not be specified.
Causal determinists believe that there is nothing in the universe that has no cause or is self-caused. Causal
determinism has also been considered more generally as the idea that everything that happens or exists is
caused by antecedent conditions.[6] In the case of nomological determinism, these conditions are considered
events also, implying that the future is determined completely by preceding events—a combination of prior
states of the universe and the laws of nature.[4] These conditions can also be considered metaphysical in
origin (such as in the case of theological determinism).[5]

Nomological

Nomological determinism is the most common form of causal determinism and

is generally synonymous with physical determinism. This is the notion that the
past and the present dictate the future entirely and necessarily by rigid natural
laws and that every occurrence inevitably results from prior events. Nomological
determinism is sometimes illustrated by the thought experiment of Laplace's
demon.[7] Although sometimes called scientific determinism, the term is a
misnomer for nomological determinism.
Many philosophical
Necessitarianism theories of
determinism frame
Necessitarianism is a metaphysical principle that denies all mere possibility and themselves with the
maintains that there is only one possible way for the world to exist. Leucippus idea that reality follows
claimed there are no uncaused events and that everything occurs for a reason a sort of predetermined
and by necessity.[8] path.

Predeterminism

Predeterminism is the idea that all events are determined in advance.[9][10] The concept is often argued by
invoking causal determinism, implying that there is an unbroken chain of prior occurrences stretching back
to the origin of the universe. In the case of predeterminism, this chain of events has been pre-established,
and human actions cannot interfere with the outcomes of this pre-established chain.

Predeterminism can be categorized as a specific type of determinism when it is used to mean pre-
established causal determinism.[9][11] It can also be used interchangeably with causal determinism—in the
context of its capacity to determine future events.[9][12] However, predeterminism is often considered as
independent of causal determinism.[13][14]

Biological

The term predeterminism is also frequently used in the context of biology and heredity, in which case it
represents a form of biological determinism, sometimes called genetic determinism.[15] Biological
determinism is the idea that all human behaviors, beliefs, and desires are fixed by human genetic nature.

Friedrich Nietzsche explained that human beings are "determined" by their bodies and are subject to its
passions, impulses, and instincts.[16]

Fatalism

Fatalism is normally distinguished from determinism,[17] as a form of teleological determinism. Fatalism is

the idea that everything is fated to happen, resulting in humans having no control over their future. Fate has
arbitrary power, and does not necessarily follow any causal or deterministic laws.[6] Types of fatalism
include hard theological determinism and the idea of predestination, where there is a God who determines
all that humans will do. This may be accomplished through either foreknowledge of their actions, achieved
through omniscience[18] or by predetermining their actions.[19]

Theological

Theological determinism is a form of determinism that holds that all events that happen are either
preordained (i.e., predestined) to happen by a monotheistic deity, or are destined to occur given its
omniscience. Two forms of theological determinism exist, referred to as strong and weak theological
determinism.[20]

Strong theological determinism is based on the concept of a creator deity dictating all events in history:
"everything that happens has been predestined to happen by an omniscient, omnipotent divinity."[21]

Weak theological determinism is based on the concept of divine foreknowledge—"because God's

omniscience is perfect, what God knows about the future will inevitably happen, which means,
consequently, that the future is already fixed."[22] There exist slight variations on this categorization,
however. Some claim either that theological determinism requires predestination of all events and outcomes
by the divinity—i.e., they do not classify the weaker version as theological determinism unless libertarian
free will is assumed to be denied as a consequence—or that the weaker version does not constitute
theological determinism at all.[23]

With respect to free will, "theological determinism is the thesis that God exists and has infallible knowledge
of all true propositions including propositions about our future actions," more minimal criteria designed to
encapsulate all forms of theological determinism.[24]

Theological determinism can also be seen as a form of causal determinism, in which the antecedent
conditions are the nature and will of God.[5] Some have asserted that Augustine of Hippo introduced
theological determinism into Christianity in 412 CE, whereas all prior Christian authors supported free will
against Stoic and Gnostic determinism.[25] However, there are many Biblical passages that seem to support
the idea of some kind of theological determinism.

Adequate

Adequate determinism is the idea, because of quantum decoherence, that quantum indeterminacy can be
ignored for most macroscopic events. Random quantum events "average out" in the limit of large numbers
of particles (where the laws of quantum mechanics asymptotically approach the laws of classical
mechanics).[26] Stephen Hawking explains a similar idea: he says that the microscopic world of quantum
mechanics is one of determined probabilities. That is, quantum effects rarely alter the predictions of
classical mechanics, which are quite accurate (albeit still not perfectly certain) at larger scales.[27]
Something as large as an animal cell, then, would be "adequately determined" (even in light of quantum
indeterminacy).

Many-worlds

The many-worlds interpretation accepts the linear causal sets of sequential events with adequate
consistency yet also suggests constant forking of causal chains creating "multiple universes" to account for
multiple outcomes from single events.[28] Meaning the causal set of events leading to the present are all
valid yet appear as a singular linear time stream within a much broader unseen conic probability field of
other outcomes that "split off" from the locally observed timeline. Under this model causal sets are still
"consistent" yet not exclusive to singular iterated outcomes.

The interpretation sidesteps the exclusive retrospective causal chain problem of "could not have done
otherwise" by suggesting "the other outcome does exist" in a set of parallel universe time streams that split
off when the action occurred. This theory is sometimes described with the example of agent based choices
but more involved models argue that recursive causal splitting occurs with all wave functions at play.[29]
This model is highly contested with multiple objections from the scientific community.[30][31]

Philosophical varieties

Nature/nurture controversy

Although some of the above forms of determinism concern human behaviors

and cognition, others frame themselves as an answer to the debate on nature and
nurture. They will suggest that one factor will entirely determine behavior. As
scientific understanding has grown, however, the strongest versions of these
theories have been widely rejected as a single-cause fallacy.[32] In other words,
the modern deterministic theories attempt to explain how the interaction of both
nature and nurture is entirely predictable. The concept of heritability has been
helpful in making this distinction.

Biological determinism, sometimes called genetic determinism, is

Nature and nurture
the idea that each of human behaviors, beliefs, and desires are fixed
interact in humans. A
by human genetic nature.
scientist looking at a
Behaviorism involves the idea that all behavior can be traced to sculpture after some
specific causes—either environmental or reflexive. John B. Watson
time does not ask
and B. F. Skinner developed this nurture-focused determinism.
whether we are seeing
Cultural materialism, contends that the physical world impacts and the effects of the
sets constraints on human behavior. starting materials or of
Cultural determinism, along with social determinism, is the nurture- environmental
focused theory that the culture in which we are raised determines influences.
who we are.
Environmental determinism, also known as climatic or geographical
determinism, proposes that the physical environment, rather than social conditions,
determines culture. Supporters of environmental determinism often also support behavioral
determinism. Key proponents of this notion have included Ellen Churchill Semple, Ellsworth
Huntington, Thomas Griffith Taylor and possibly Jared Diamond, although his status as an
environmental determinist is debated.[33]

Determinism and prediction

Other "deterministic" theories actually seek only to highlight the importance of a particular factor in
predicting the future. These theories often use the factor as a sort of guide or constraint on the future. They
need not suppose that complete knowledge of that one factor would allow the making of perfect
predictions.

Psychological determinism can mean that humans must act according to reason, but it can
also be synonymous with some sort of psychological egoism. The latter is the view that
 humans will always act according to their perceived best interest.
Linguistic determinism proposes that language determines (or at
least limits) the things that humans can think and say and thus
know. The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis argues that individuals
experience the world based on the grammatical structures they
habitually use.
Economic determinism attributes primacy to economic structure
over politics in the development of human history. It is associated
with the dialectical materialism of Karl Marx.
Technological determinism is the theory that a society's technology
drives the development of its social structure and cultural values.
A technological
determinist might
Structural suggest that technology
like the mobile phone is
Structural determinism is the philosophical view that actions, events, and the greatest factor
processes are predicated on and determined by structural factors.[34] Given any shaping human
particular structure or set of estimable components, it is a concept that civilization.
emphasizes rational and predictable outcomes. Chilean biologists Humberto
Maturana and Francisco Varela popularized the notion, writing that a living
system's general order is maintained via a circular process of ongoing self-referral, and thus its organization
and structure defines the changes it undergoes.[35] According to the authors, a system can undergo changes
of state (alteration of structure without loss of identity) or disintegrations (alteration of structure with loss of
identity). Such changes or disintegrations are not ascertained by the elements of the disturbing agent, as
each disturbance will only trigger responses in the respective system, which in turn, are determined by each
system’s own structure.

On an individualistic level, what this means is that human beings as free and independent entities are
triggered to react by external stimuli or change in circumstance. However, their own internal state and
existing physical and mental capacities determine their responses to those triggers. On a much broader
societal level, structural determinists believe that larger issues in the society—especially those pertaining to
minorities and subjugated communities—are predominantly assessed through existing structural conditions,
making change of prevailing conditions difficult, and sometimes outright impossible. For example, the
concept has been applied to the politics of race in the United States of America and other Western countries
such as the United Kingdom and Australia, with structural determinists lamenting structural factors for the
prevalence of racism in these countries.[36] Additionally, Marxists have conceptualized the writings of Karl
Marx within the context of structural determinism as well. For example, Louis Althusser, a structural
Marxist, argues that the state, in its political, economic, and legal structures, reproduces the discourse of
capitalism, in turn, allowing for the burgeoning of capitalistic structures.

Proponents of the notion highlight the usefulness of structural determinism to study complicated issues
related to race and gender, as it highlights often gilded structural conditions that block meaningful
change.[37] Critics call it too rigid, reductionist and inflexible. Additionally, they also criticize the notion for
overemphasizing deterministic forces such as structure over the role of human agency and the ability of the
people to act. These critics argue that politicians, academics, and social activists have the capability to bring
about significant change despite stringent structural conditions.

With free will

Philosophers have debated both the truth of determinism, and the truth of free will. This creates the four
possible positions in the figure. Compatibilism refers to the view that free will is, in some sense, compatible
with determinism. The three incompatibilist positions deny this possibility. The hard incompatibilists hold
that free will is incompatible with both determinism and indeterminism, the libertarians that determinism
does not hold, and free will might exist, and the hard determinists that determinism does hold and free will
does not exist. The Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza was a determinist thinker, and argued that human
freedom can be achieved through knowledge of the causes that determine our desire and affections. He
defined human servitude as the state of bondage of anyone who is aware of their own desires, but ignorant
of the causes that determined them. However, the free or virtuous person becomes capable, through reason
and knowledge, to be genuinely free, even as they are being "determined". For the Dutch philosopher,
acting out of one's own internal necessity is genuine freedom while being driven by exterior determinations
is akin to bondage. Spinoza's thoughts on human servitude and liberty are respectively detailed in the
fourth[38] and fifth[39] volumes of his work Ethics.

The standard argument against free will, according to philosopher J. J. C. Smart, focuses on the
implications of determinism for free will.[40] He suggests free will is denied whether determinism is true or
not. He says that if determinism is true, all actions are predicted and no one is assumed to be free; however,
if determinism is false, all actions are presumed to be random and as such no one seems free because they
have no part in controlling what happens.

With the soul

Some determinists argue that materialism does not present a complete understanding of the universe,
because while it can describe determinate interactions among material things, it ignores the minds or souls
of conscious beings.

A number of positions can be delineated:

Immaterial souls are all that exist (idealism).

Immaterial souls exist and exert a non-deterministic causal influence on bodies (traditional
free-will, interactionist dualism).[41][42]
Immaterial souls exist but are part of a deterministic framework.
Immaterial souls exist, but exert no causal influence, free or determined (epiphenomenalism,
occasionalism)
Immaterial souls do not exist – there is no mind–body dichotomy, and there is a materialistic
explanation for intuitions to the contrary.

With ethics and morality

Another topic of debate is the implication that determinism has on morality.

Philosopher and incompatibilist Peter van Inwagen introduced this thesis, when arguments that free will is
required for moral judgments, as such:[43]

1. The moral judgment that X should not have been done implies that something else should
have been done instead.
2. That something else should have been done instead implies that there was something else
to do.
3. That there was something else to do, implies that something else could have been done.
4. That something else could have been done implies that there is free will.
 5. If there is no free will to have done other than X we cannot make the moral judgment that X
should not have been done.

History
Determinism was developed by the Greek philosophers during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE by the Pre-
socratic philosophers Heraclitus and Leucippus, later Aristotle, and mainly by the Stoics. Some of the main
philosophers who have dealt with this issue are Marcus Aurelius, Omar Khayyám, Thomas Hobbes,
Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, David Hume, Baron d'Holbach (Paul Heinrich Dietrich), Pierre-Simon
Laplace, Arthur Schopenhauer, William James, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Ralph
Waldo Emerson and, more recently, John Searle, Ted Honderich, and Daniel Dennett.

Mecca Chiesa notes that the probabilistic or selectionistic determinism of B. F. Skinner comprised a wholly
separate conception of determinism that was not mechanistic at all. Mechanistic determinism assumes that
every event has an unbroken chain of prior occurrences, but a selectionistic or probabilistic model does
not.[44][45]

Western tradition

In the West, some elements of determinism have been expressed in Greece from the 6th century BCE by
the Presocratics Heraclitus[46] and Leucippus.[47] The first notions of determinism appears to originate with
the Stoics, as part of their theory of universal causal determinism.[48] The resulting philosophical debates,
which involved the confluence of elements of Aristotelian Ethics with Stoic psychology, led in the 1st–3rd
centuries CE in the works of Alexander of Aphrodisias to the first recorded Western debate over
determinism and freedom,[49] an issue that is known in theology as the paradox of free will. The writings of
Epictetus as well as middle Platonist and early Christian thought were instrumental in this development.[50]
Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides said of the deterministic implications of an omniscient god:[51]
"Does God know or does He not know that a certain individual will be good or bad? If thou sayest 'He
knows', then it necessarily follows that [that] man is compelled to act as God knew beforehand he would
act, otherwise God's knowledge would be imperfect."[52]

Newtonian mechanics

Determinism in the West is often associated with Newtonian mechanics/physics, which depicts the physical
matter of the universe as operating according to a set of fixed laws. The "billiard ball" hypothesis, a product
of Newtonian physics, argues that once the initial conditions of the universe have been established, the rest
of the history of the universe follows inevitably. If it were actually possible to have complete knowledge of
physical matter and all of the laws governing that matter at any one time, then it would be theoretically
possible to compute the time and place of every event that will ever occur (Laplace's demon). In this sense,
the basic particles of the universe operate in the same fashion as the rolling balls on a billiard table, moving
and striking each other in predictable ways to produce predictable results.

Whether or not it is all-encompassing in so doing, Newtonian mechanics deals only with caused events; for
example, if an object begins in a known position and is hit dead on by an object with some known velocity,
then it will be pushed straight toward another predictable point. If it goes somewhere else, the Newtonians
argue, one must question one's measurements of the original position of the object, the exact direction of the
striking object, gravitational or other fields that were inadvertently ignored, etc. Then, they maintain,
repeated experiments and improvements in accuracy will always bring one's observations closer to the
theoretically predicted results. When dealing with situations on an ordinary human scale, Newtonian
physics has been successful. But it fails as velocities become some substantial fraction of the speed of light
and when interactions at the atomic scale are studied. Before the discovery of quantum effects and other
challenges to Newtonian physics, "uncertainty" was always a term that applied to the accuracy of human
knowledge about causes and effects, and not to the causes and effects themselves.

Newtonian mechanics, as well as any following physical theories, are results of observations and
experiments, and so they describe "how it all works" within a tolerance. However, old western scientists
believed if there are any logical connections found between an observed cause and effect, there must be
also some absolute natural laws behind. Belief in perfect natural laws driving everything, instead of just
describing what we should expect, led to searching for a set of universal simple laws that rule the world.
This movement significantly encouraged deterministic views in Western philosophy,[53] as well as the
related theological views of classical pantheism.

Eastern tradition

The idea that the entire universe is a deterministic system has been articulated in both Eastern and non-
Eastern religions, philosophy, and literature.

The ancient Arabs that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam used to profess a
widespread belief in fatalism (ḳadar) alongside a fearful consideration for the sky and the stars as divine
beings, which they held to be ultimately responsible for every phenomena that occurs on Earth and for the
destiny of humankind.[54] Accordingly, they shaped their entire lives in accordance with their
interpretations of astral configurations and phenomena.[54]

In the I Ching and philosophical Taoism, the ebb and flow of favorable and unfavorable conditions
suggests the path of least resistance is effortless (see: Wu wei). In the philosophical schools of the Indian
Subcontinent, the concept of karma deals with similar philosophical issues to the Western concept of
determinism. Karma is understood as a spiritual mechanism which causes the eternal cycle of birth, death,
and rebirth (saṃsāra).[55] Karma, either positive or negative, accumulates according to an individual's
actions throughout their life, and at their death determines the nature of their next life in the cycle of
Saṃsāra.[55] Most major religions originating in India hold this belief to some degree, most notably
Hinduism,[55] Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism.

The views on the interaction of karma and free will are numerous, and diverge from each other. For
example, in Sikhism, god's grace, gained through worship, can erase one's karmic debts, a belief which
reconciles the principle of karma with a monotheistic god one must freely choose to worship.[56] Jainists
believe in compatibilism, in which the cycle of Saṃsara is a completely mechanistic process, occurring
without any divine intervention. The Jains hold an atomic view of reality, in which particles of karma form
the fundamental microscopic building material of the universe.

Ājīvika

In ancient India, the Ājīvika school of philosophy founded by Makkhali Gosāla (around 500 BCE),
otherwise referred to as "Ājīvikism" in Western scholarship,[57] upheld the Niyati ("Fate") doctrine of
absolute fatalism or determinism,[57][58][59] which negates the existence of free will and karma, and is
therefore considered one of the nāstika or "heterodox" schools of Indian philosophy.[57][58][59] The oldest
descriptions of the Ājīvika fatalists and their founder Gosāla can be found both in the Buddhist and Jaina
scriptures of ancient India.[57][59] The predetermined fate of living beings and the impossibility to achieve
liberation (moksha) from the eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth was the major distinctive
philosophical and metaphysical doctrine of this heterodox school of Indian philosophy,[57][58][59]
annoverated among the other Śramaṇa movements that emerged in India during the Second urbanization
(600–200 BCE).[57]

Buddhism

Buddhist philosophy contains several concepts which some scholars describe as deterministic to various
levels.

One concept which is argued to support a hard determinism is the idea of dependent origination, which
claims that all phenomena (dharma) are necessarily caused by some other phenomenon, which it can be
said to be dependent on, like links in a massive chain. In traditional Buddhist philosophy, this concept is
used to explain the functioning of the cycle of saṃsāra; all actions exert a karmic force, which will
manifest results in future lives. In other words, righteous or unrighteous actions in one life will necessarily
cause good or bad responses in another.[60]

Another Buddhist concept which many scholars perceive to be deterministic is the idea of non-self, or
anatta.[61] In Buddhism, attaining enlightenment involves one realizing that in humans there is no
fundamental core of being which can be called the "soul", and that humans are instead made of several
constantly changing factors which bind them to the cycle of Saṃsāra.[61]

Some scholars argue that the concept of non-self necessarily disproves the ideas of free will and moral
culpability. If there is no autonomous self, in this view, and all events are necessarily and unchangeably
caused by others, then no type of autonomy can be said to exist, moral or otherwise. However, other
scholars disagree, claiming that the Buddhist conception of the universe allows for a form of compatibilism.
Buddhism perceives reality occurring on two different levels, the ultimate reality which can only be truly
understood by the enlightened, and the illusory and false material reality. Therefore, Buddhism perceives
free will as a notion belonging to material reality, while concepts like non-self and dependent origination
belong to the ultimate reality; the transition between the two can be truly understood, Buddhists claim, by
one who has attained enlightenment.[62]

Modern scientific perspective

Generative processes

Although it was once thought by scientists that any indeterminism in quantum mechanics occurred at too
small a scale to influence biological or neurological systems, there is indication that nervous systems are
influenced by quantum indeterminism due to chaos theory.[63] It is unclear what implications this has for
the problem of free will given various possible reactions to the problem in the first place.[64] Many
biologists do not grant determinism: Christof Koch, for instance, argues against it, and in favour of
libertarian free will, by making arguments based on generative processes (emergence).[65] Other
proponents of emergentist or generative philosophy, cognitive sciences, and evolutionary psychology, argue
that a certain form of determinism (not necessarily causal) is true.[66][67][68][69] They suggest instead that
an 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.[66][67][68][69]
As an illustration, the strategy board-games chess and Go have rigorous rules in
which no information (such as cards' face-values) is hidden from either player and
no random events (such as dice-rolling) happen within the game. Yet, chess and
especially Go with its extremely simple deterministic rules, can still have an
extremely large number of unpredictable moves. When chess is simplified to 7 or
fewer pieces, however, endgame tables are available that dictate which moves to In Conway's Game
play to achieve a perfect game. This implies that, given a less complex environment of Life, the
(with the original 32 pieces reduced to 7 or fewer pieces), a perfectly predictable interaction of just
game of chess is possible. In this scenario, the winning player can announce that a four simple rules
checkmate will happen within a given number of moves, assuming a perfect creates patterns
defense by the losing player, or fewer moves if the defending player chooses sub- that seem
optimal moves as the game progresses into its inevitable, predicted conclusion. By somehow "alive".
this analogy, it is suggested, the experience of free will emerges from the interaction
of finite rules and deterministic parameters that generate nearly infinite and
practically unpredictable behavioural responses. In theory, if all these events could be accounted for, and
there were a known way to evaluate these events, the seemingly unpredictable behaviour would become
predictable.[66][67][68][69] Another hands-on example of generative processes is John Horton Conway's
playable Game of Life.[70] Nassim Taleb is wary of such models, and coined the term "ludic fallacy."

Compatibility with the existence of science

Certain philosophers of science argue that, while causal determinism (in which everything including the
brain/mind is subject to the laws of causality) is compatible with minds capable of science, fatalism and
predestination is not. These philosophers make the distinction that causal determinism means that each step
is determined by the step before and therefore allows sensory input from observational data to determine
what conclusions the brain reaches, while fatalism in which the steps between do not connect an initial
cause to the results would make it impossible for observational data to correct false hypotheses. This is
often combined with the argument that if the brain had fixed views and the arguments were mere after-
constructs with no causal effect on the conclusions, science would have been impossible and the use of
arguments would have been a meaningless waste of energy with no persuasive effect on brains with fixed
views.[71]

Mathematical models

Many mathematical models of physical systems are deterministic. This is true of most models involving
differential equations (notably, those measuring rate of change over time). Mathematical models that are not
deterministic because they involve randomness are called stochastic. Because of sensitive dependence on
initial conditions, some deterministic models may appear to behave non-deterministically; in such cases, a
deterministic interpretation of the model may not be useful due to numerical instability and a finite amount
of precision in measurement. Such considerations can motivate the consideration of a stochastic model even
though the underlying system is governed by deterministic equations.[72][73][74]

Quantum and classical mechanics

Day-to-day physics
Since the beginning of the 20th century, quantum mechanics—the physics of the extremely small—has
revealed previously concealed aspects of events. Before that, Newtonian physics—the physics of everyday
life—dominated. Taken in isolation (rather than as an approximation to quantum mechanics), Newtonian
physics depicts a universe in which objects move in perfectly determined ways. At the scale where humans
exist and interact with the universe, Newtonian mechanics remain useful, and make relatively accurate
predictions (e.g. calculating the trajectory of a bullet). But whereas in theory, absolute knowledge of the
forces accelerating a bullet would produce an absolutely accurate prediction of its path, modern quantum
mechanics casts reasonable doubt on this main thesis of determinism.

Quantum realm

Quantum physics works differently in many ways from Newtonian physics. Physicist Aaron D. O'Connell
explains that understanding our universe, at such small scales as atoms, requires a different logic than day-
to-day life does. O'Connell does not deny that it is all interconnected: the scale of human existence
ultimately does emerge from the quantum scale. O'Connell argues that we must simply use different models
and constructs when dealing with the quantum world.[75] Quantum mechanics is the product of a careful
application of the scientific method, logic and empiricism. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is
frequently confused with the observer effect. The uncertainty principle actually describes how precisely we
may measure the position and momentum of a particle at the same time—if we increase the accuracy in
measuring one quantity, we are forced to lose accuracy in measuring the other. "These uncertainty relations
give us that measure of freedom from the limitations of classical concepts which is necessary for a
consistent description of atomic processes."[76]

This is where statistical mechanics come into play, and where physicists begin to require rather unintuitive
mental models: A particle's path simply cannot be exactly specified in its full quantum description. "Path" is
a classical, practical attribute in everyday life, but one that quantum particles do not meaningfully possess.
The probabilities discovered in quantum mechanics do nevertheless arise from measurement (of the
perceived path of the particle). As Stephen Hawking explains, the result is not traditional determinism, but
rather determined probabilities.[77] In some cases, a quantum particle may indeed trace an exact path, and
the probability of finding the particles in that path is one (certain to be true). In fact, as far as prediction
goes, the quantum development is at least as predictable as the classical motion, but the key is that it
describes wave functions that cannot be easily expressed in ordinary language. As far as the thesis of
determinism is concerned, these probabilities, at least, are quite determined. These findings from quantum
mechanics have found many applications, and allow us to build transistors and lasers. Put another way:
personal computers, Blu-ray players and the Internet all work because humankind discovered the
determined probabilities of the quantum world.[78]

On the topic of predictable probabilities, the double-slit experiments are a popular example. Photons are
fired one-by-one through a double-slit apparatus at a distant screen. They do not arrive at any single point,
nor even the two points lined up with the slits (the way it might be expected of bullets fired by a fixed gun
at a distant target). Instead, the light arrives in varying concentrations at widely separated points, and the
distribution of its collisions with the target can be calculated reliably. In that sense the behavior of light in
this apparatus is deterministic, but there is no way to predict where in the resulting interference pattern any
individual photon will make its contribution (although, there may be ways to use weak measurement to
acquire more information without violating the uncertainty principle).

Some (including Albert Einstein) have argued that the inability to predict any more than probabilities is
simply due to ignorance.[79] The idea is that, beyond the conditions and laws can be observed or deduced,
there are also hidden factors or "hidden variables" that determine absolutely in which order photons reach
the detector screen. They argue that the course of the universe is
absolutely determined, but that humans are screened from
knowledge of the determinative factors. So, they say, it only
appears that things proceed in a merely probabilistically
determinative way. In actuality, they proceed in an absolutely
deterministic way.

John S. Bell criticized Einstein's work in his famous Bell's theorem,

which, under a strict set of assumptions, demonstrates that quantum
mechanics can make statistical predictions that would be violated if
local hidden variables really existed. A number of experiments have
tried to verify such predictions, and so far they do not appear to be
violated. Current experiments continue to verify the result,
including the 2015 "Loophole Free Test" that plugged all known
sources of error and the 2017 "Cosmic Bell Test" experiment that
used cosmic data streaming from different directions toward the
Earth, precluding the possibility the sources of data could have had
prior interactions.

Bell's theorem has been criticized from the perspective of its strict
set of assumptions. A foundational assumption to quantum
mechanics is the Principle of locality. To abandon this assumption
would require the construction of a non-local hidden variable
theory. Therefore, it is possible to augment quantum mechanics
with non-local hidden variables to achieve a deterministic theory
that is in agreement with experiment.[80] An example is the Bohm
interpretation of quantum mechanics. Bohm's Interpretation,
though, violates special relativity and it is highly controversial
whether or not it can be reconciled without giving up on
determinism.

Another foundational assumption to quantum mechanics is that of

free will,[81] which has been argued[82] to be foundational to the
scientific method as a whole. Bell acknowledged that abandoning
this assumption would both allow for the maintenance of Although it is not possible to predict
determinism as well as locality.[83] This perspective is known as the trajectory of any one particle,
superdeterminism, and is defended by some physicists such as they all obey determined
Sabine Hossenfelder and Tim Palmer.[84] probabilities which do permit some
prediction
More advanced variations on these arguments include quantum
contextuality, by Bell, Simon B. Kochen and Ernst Specker, which
argues that hidden variable theories cannot be "sensible", meaning that the values of the hidden variables
inherently depend on the devices used to measure them.

This debate is relevant because there are possibly specific situations in which the arrival of an electron at a
screen at a certain point and time would trigger one event, whereas its arrival at another point would trigger
an entirely different event (e.g. see Schrödinger's cat—a thought experiment used as part of a deeper
debate).

Thus, quantum physics casts reasonable doubt on the traditional determinism of classical, Newtonian
physics in so far as reality does not seem to be absolutely determined. This was the subject of the famous
Bohr–Einstein debates between Einstein and Niels Bohr and there is still no consensus.[85][86]
Adequate determinism (see Varieties, above) is the reason that Stephen Hawking called libertarian free will
"just an illusion".[77]

See also
Amor fati
Calvinism
Digital physics
False necessity
Fractal
Game theory
Ilya Prigogine
Interpretations of quantum mechanics
Lazy reason
Naturalism (literature)
Notes from Underground
Open theism
Philosophical interpretation of classical physics
Positivism
Radical behaviorism
Voluntarism
Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory

References

Notes
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4. Hoefer, Carl (2008). "Causal Determinism" (http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2009/entrie
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5. Eshleman, Andrew (2009). "Moral Responsibility" (http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win201
2/entries/moral-responsibility/). In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of
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2012. "Predeterminism: the philosophical and theological view that combines God with
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Planck scale". arXiv:hep-th/0104219 (https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0104219). "Predeterminism
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in fact limited by deterministic laws, hence not free at all", and Sukumar, C.V. (1996). "A new
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"Quantum Theory provided a beautiful description of the behaviour of isolated atoms and
nuclei and small aggregates of elementary particles. Modern science recognized that
predisposition rather than predeterminism is what is widely prevalent in nature."
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essence, the position which holds that all behavior is caused by prior behavior.
"Predeterminism" is the position which holds that all behavior is caused by conditions which
predate behavior altogether (such impersonal boundaries as "the human conditions",
instincts, the will of God, inherent knowledge, fate, and such)."
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"Theological determinism, or the doctrine of predestination: the view that everything which
happens has been predestined to happen by an omniscient, omnipotent divinity. A weaker
version holds that, though not predestined to happen, everything that happens has been
eternally known by virtue of the divine foreknowledge of an omniscient divinity. If this divinity
is also omnipotent, as in the case of the Judeo-Christian religions, this weaker version is
hard to distinguish from the previous one because, though able to prevent what happens
and knowing that it is going to happen, God lets it happen. To this, advocates of free will
reply that God permits it to happen in order to make room for the free will of humans."
22. Wentzel Van Huyssteen (2003). "Theological determinism" (https://books.google.com/book
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compatible with scientific and metaphysical determinism. In the first, God determines
everything that happens, either in one all-determining single act at the initial creation of the
universe or through continuous divine interactions with the world. Either way, the
consequence is that everything that happens becomes God's action, and determinism is
closely linked to divine action and God's omnipotence. According to the second type of
theological determinism, God has perfect knowledge of everything in the universe because
God is omniscient. And, as some say, because God is outside of time, God has the capacity
of knowing past, present, and future in one instance. This means that God knows what will
happen in the future. And because God's omniscience is perfect, what God knows about the
future will inevitably happen, which means, consequently, that the future is already fixed."
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causes everything to go accord with it. We should note, as an aside, that there is some
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57. Balcerowicz, Piotr (2016). "Determinism, Ājīvikas, and Jainism" (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=nfOPCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA136). Early Asceticism in India: Ājīvikism and Jainism.
Routledge Advances in Jaina Studies. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 136–174.
ISBN 978-1317538530. "The Ājīvikas' doctrinal signature was indubitably the idea of
determinism and fate, which traditionally incorporated four elements: the doctrine of destiny
(niyati-vāda), the doctrine of predetermined concurrence of factors (saṅgati-vāda), the
doctrine of intrinsic nature (svabhāva-vāda), occasionally also linked to materialists, and the
doctrine of fate (daiva-vāda), or simply fatalism. The Ājīvikas' emphasis on fate and
determinism was so profound that later sources would consistently refer to them as niyati-
vādins, or 'the propounders of the doctrine of destiny'."
58. Leaman, Oliver, ed. (1999). "Fatalism" (https://books.google.com/books?id=_4crBgAAQBAJ
&pg=PA80). Key Concepts in Eastern Philosophy. Routledge Key Guides (1st ed.). London
and New York: Routledge. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-0415173636. "Fatalism. Some of the
teachings of Indian philosophy are fatalistic. For example, the Ajivika school argued that fate
(nyati) governs both the cycle of birth and rebirth, and also individual lives. Suffering is not
attributed to past actions, but just takes place without any cause or rationale, as does relief
from suffering. There is nothing we can do to achieve moksha, we just have to hope that all
will go well with us. [...] But the Ajivikas were committed to asceticism, and they justified this
in terms of its practice being just as determined by fate as anything else."
59. Basham, Arthur L. (1981) [1951]. "Chapter XII: Niyati" (https://books.google.com/books?id=Bi
GQzc5lRGYC&pg=PA224). History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas, a Vanished Indian
Religion. Lala L. S. Jain Series (1st ed.). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 224–238.
ISBN 978-8120812048. OCLC 633493794 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/633493794). "The
fundamental principle of Ājīvika philosophy was Fate, usually called Niyati. Buddhist and
Jaina sources agree that Gosāla was a rigid determinist, who exalted Niyati to the status of
the motive factor of the universe and the sole agent of all phenomenal change. This is quite
clear in our locus classicus, the Samaññaphala Sutta. Sin and suffering, attributed by other
sects to the laws of karma, the result of evil committed in the previous lives or in the present
one, were declared by Gosāla to be without cause or basis, other, presumably, than the force
of destiny. Similarly, the escape from evil, the working off of accumulated evil karma, was
likewise without cause or basis."
60. Goldstein, Joseph. "Dependent Origination: The Twelve Links Explained" (https://tricycle.or
g/magazine/dependent-origination/). Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved 26 January
2020.
61. "Anatta | Buddhism" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/anatta). Encyclopedia Britannica.
Retrieved 26 January 2020.
62. Repetti, Ricardo (2012). "Buddhist Hard Determinism: No Self, No Free Will, No
Responsibility" (http://enlight.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-MAG/mag388415.pdf) (PDF).
Journal of Buddhist Ethics. 19: 136–137, 143–145. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
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63. Lewis, Edwin R.; Macgregor, Ronald J. (1 June 2006). "On indeterminism, chaos, and small
number particle systems in the brain" (https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S021
9635206001112). Journal of Integrative Neuroscience. 05 (2): 223–247.
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64. Lewis, E.R.; MacGregor, R.J. (2006). "On Indeterminism, Chaos, and Small Number Particle
Systems in the Brain" (http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~lewis/LewisMacGregor.pdf) (PDF).
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65. Koch, Christof (2009). "Free Will, Physics, Biology and the Brain". In Murphy, Nancy; Ellis,
George; O'Connor, Timothy (eds.). Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will.
New York: Springer. Bibcode:2009dcnf.book.....M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009dc
nf.book.....M). ISBN 978-3-642-03204-2.
66. Kenrick, D. T.; Li, N. P.; Butner, J. (2003). "Dynamical evolutionary psychology: Individual
decision rules and emergent social norms" (http://www.mysmu.edu/faculty/normanli/Kenrick
LiButner2003.pdf) (PDF). Psychological Review. 110 (1): 3–28. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.526.5218
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ed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12529056). S2CID 43306158 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:
43306158).
67. Nowak A., Vallacher R.R., Tesser A., Borkowski W., (2000) "Society of Self: The emergence
of collective properties in self-structure", Psychological Review 107.
68. Epstein J.M. and Axtell R. (1996) Growing Artificial Societies – Social Science from the
Bottom. Cambridge MA, MIT Press.
69. Epstein J.M. (1999) "Agent Based Models and Generative Social Science". Complexity, IV
(5)
70. "John Conway's Game of Life" (https://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/).
71. Karl Popper: Conjectures and rRefutations
72. Werndl, Charlotte (2009). "Are Deterministic Descriptions and Indeterministic Descriptions
Observationally Equivalent?". Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics. 40 (3):
232–242. arXiv:1310.1615 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.1615).
Bibcode:2009SHPMP..40..232W (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009SHPMP..40..232
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73. Werndl, Charlotte (2009). Deterministic Versus Indeterministic Descriptions: Not That
Different After All? (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00004775/). In: A. Hieke and H.
Leitgeb (eds), "Reduction, Abstraction, Analysis", Proceedings of the 31st International
Ludwig Wittgenstein-Symposium. Ontos, 63–78.
74. J. Glimm, D. Sharp, Stochastic Differential Equations: Selected Applications in Continuum
Physics, in: R.A. Carmona, B. Rozovskii (ed.) Stochastic Partial Differential Equations: Six
Perspectives, American Mathematical Society (1998) ISBN 0-8218-0806-0
75. "Struggling with quantum logic: Q&A with Aaron O'Connell" (http://blog.ted.com/2011/06/02/s
truggling-with-quantum-logic-qa-with-aaron-oconnell/). 2 June 2011.
76. Heisenberg, Werner (1949). Physikalische Prinzipien der Quantentheorie (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=NzMBh4ZxKJsC&pg=PA4) [Physical Principles of Quantum Theory].
Leipzig: Hirzel/University of Chicago Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0486601137.
77. Grand Design (2010), p. 32: "the molecular basis of biology shows that biological processes
are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry and therefore are as determined as the
orbits of the planets...so it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free
will is just an illusion", and p. 72: "Quantum physics might seem to undermine the idea that
nature is governed by laws, but that is not the case. Instead it leads us to accept a new form
of determinism: Given the state of a system at some time, the laws of nature determine the
probabilities of various futures and pasts rather than determining the future and past with
certainty." (discussing a Many worlds interpretation)
78. "What is Quantum Mechanics Good For?" (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=
everyday-quantum-physics). Scientific American.
79. Albert Einstein insisted that, "I am convinced God does not play dice" in a private letter to
Max Born, 4 December 1926, Albert Einstein Archives (http://www.alberteinstein.info/db/Vie
wDetails.do?DocumentID=38009) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100819045822/
http://www.alberteinstein.info/db/ViewDetails.do?DocumentID=38009) 19 August 2010 at
the Wayback Machine reel 8, item 180
80. Jabs, Arthur (2016). "A conjecture concerning determinism, reduction, and measurement in
quantum mechanics". Quantum Studies: Mathematics and Foundations. 3 (4): 279–292.
arXiv:1204.0614 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0614). doi:10.1007/s40509-016-0077-7 (https://d
oi.org/10.1007%2Fs40509-016-0077-7). S2CID 32523066 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/C
orpusID:32523066).
81. Zeilinger, Anton (2010). Dance of the Photons: From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 261. ISBN 978-0-374-23966-4. "A new picture of the
world must encompass three properties that evidently seem to play a significant role in
quantum experiments[...]The second important property of the world that we always implicitly
assume is the freedom of the individual experimentalist. This is the assumption of free will. It
is a free decision what measurement one wants to perform."
82. Gisin, Nicolas (2014). Quantum Chance: Nonlocality, Teleportation and Other Quantum
Marvels. Switzerland: Sringer International Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 978-3-319-05472-8. "not
only does free will exist, but it is a prerequisite for science, philosophy, and our very ability to
think rationally in a meaningful way. Without free will, there could be no rational thought. As
a consequence, it is quite simply impossible for science and philosophy to deny free will."
83. BBC Radio interview with Paul Davies, 1985: "There is a way to escape the inference of
superluminal speeds and spooky action at a distance. But it involves absolute determinism
in the universe, the complete absence of free will. Suppose the world is super-deterministic,
with not just inanimate nature running on behind-the-scenes clockwork, but with our
behavior, including our belief that we are free to choose to do one experiment rather than
another, absolutely predetermined, including the 'decision' by the experimenter to carry out
one set of measurements rather than another, the difficulty disappears."
84. Hossenfelder, Sabine; Palmer, Tim (2020). "Rethinking Superdeterminism" (https://doi.org/1
0.3389%2Ffphy.2020.00139). Frontiers in Physics. 8: 139. arXiv:1912.06462 (https://arxiv.or
g/abs/1912.06462). Bibcode:2020FrP.....8..139P (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020Fr
P.....8..139P). doi:10.3389/fphy.2020.00139 (https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffphy.2020.00139).
ISSN 2296-424X (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2296-424X).
85. Bishop, Robert C. (2011). "Chaos, Indeterminism, and Free Will" (https://books.google.com/
books?id=kzcFDsWg0GEC&pg=PA90). In Kane, Robert (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of
Free Will (2nd ed.). Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-
0195399691. OCLC 653483691 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/653483691). "The key
question is whether to understand the nature of this probability as epistemic or ontic. Along
epistemic lines, one possibility is that there is some additional factor (i.e., a hidden
mechanism) such that once we discover and understand this factor, we would be able to
predict the observed behavior of the quantum stoplight with certainty (physicists call this
approach a "hidden variable theory"; see, e.g., Bell 1987, 1–13, 29–39; Bohm 1952a, 1952b;
Bohm and Hiley 1993; Bub 1997, 40–114, Holland 1993; see also the preceding essay in
this volume by Hodgson). Or perhaps there is an interaction with the broader environment
(e.g., neighboring buildings, trees) that we have not taken into account in our observations
that explains how these probabilities arise (physicists call this approach decoherence or
consistent histories15). Under either of these approaches, we would interpret the observed
indeterminism in the behavior of stoplights as an expression of our ignorance about the
actual workings. Under an ignorance interpretation, indeterminism would not be a
fundamental feature of quantum stoplights, but merely epistemic in nature due to our lack of
knowledge about the system. Quantum stoplights would turn to be deterministic after all."
86. Baggott, Jim E. (2004). "Complementarity and Entanglement" (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=uVdjwsqrgz8C&q=scientific+consensus+determinism+bell+theorem&pg=PA203).
Beyond Measure: Modern Physics, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Quantum Theory.
Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-19-852536-3.
OCLC 52486237 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52486237). "So, was Einstein wrong? In the
sense that the EPR paper argued in favor of an objective reality for each quantum particle in
an entangled pair independent of the other and of the measuring device, the answer must be
yes. But if Einstein was wrong to hold to the realist's belief that the physics of the universe
should be objective and deterministic, it must be acknowledged that no answer exists for
such a question. It is in the nature of theoretical science that there can be no such thing as
certainty. A theory is only "true" for as long as the majority of the scientific community
maintain a consensus view that the theory is the one best able to explain the observations.
And the story of quantum theory is not over yet."

Bibliography
Daniel Dennett (2003) Freedom Evolves. Viking Penguin.
John Earman (2007) "Aspects of Determinism in Modern Physics" in Butterfield, J., and
Earman, J., eds., Philosophy of Physics, Part B. North Holland: 1369–1434.
George Ellis (2005) "Physics and the Real World", Physics Today.
Epstein, J.M. (1999). "Agent Based Models and Generative Social Science". Complexity. IV
(5): 41–60. Bibcode:1999Cmplx...4e..41E (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999Cmplx...4
e..41E). CiteSeerX 10.1.1.118.546 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.
1.118.546). doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-0526(199905/06)4:5<41::aid-cplx9>3.0.co;2-f (https://doi.
org/10.1002%2F%28sici%291099-0526%28199905%2F06%294%3A5%3C41%3A%3Aaid
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Epstein, J.M. and Axtell R. (1996) Growing Artificial Societies – Social Science from the
Bottom. MIT Press.
Harris, James A. (2005) Of Liberty and Necessity: The Free Will Debate in Eighteenth-
Century British Philosophy. Clarendon Press.
Kenrick, D. T.; Li, N. P.; Butner, J. (2003). "Dynamical evolutionary psychology: Individual
decision rules and emergent social norms" (http://www.mysmu.edu/faculty/normanli/Kenrick
LiButner2003.pdf) (PDF). Psychological Review. 110 (1): 3–28. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.526.5218
(https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.526.5218). doi:10.1037/0033-
295x.110.1.3 (https://doi.org/10.1037%2F0033-295x.110.1.3). PMID 12529056 (https://pubm
ed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12529056). S2CID 43306158 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:
43306158).
Albert Messiah, Quantum Mechanics, English translation by G. M. Temmer of Mécanique
Quantique, 1966, John Wiley and Sons, vol. I, chapter IV, section III.
Ernest Nagel (3 March 1960). "Determinism in history". Philosophy and Phenomenological
Research. 20 (3): 291–317. doi:10.2307/2105051 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2105051).
JSTOR 2105051 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2105051). (Online version found here (http://w
ww.drabruzzi.com/NAGEL_Determinism%20In%20History.pdf))
John T Roberts (2006). "Determinism" (https://books.google.com/books?id=UchIDBrAQEM
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 Nowak A., Vallacher R.R., Tesser A., Borkowski W., (2000) "Society of Self: The emergence
of collective properties in self-structure", Psychological Review 107.

Further reading
George Musser, "Is the Cosmos Random? (Einstein's assertion that God does not play dice
with the universe has been misinterpreted)", Scientific American, vol. 313, no. 3 (September
2015), pp. 88–93.

External links
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Causal Determinism (http://plato.stanford.edu/
entries/determinism-causal/)
Determinism in History (https://web.archive.org/web/20050404080900/http://etext.lib.virginia.
edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv2-02) from the Dictionary of the History of Ideas
Philosopher Ted Honderich's Determinism web resource (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwI
ntroIndex.htm)
Determinism on Information Philosopher (http://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/de
terminism.html)
The Society of Natural Science (http://www.determinism.com) Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20210126101052/http://www.determinism.com/) 26 January 2021 at the Wayback
Machine
Determinism and Free Will in Judaism (http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?AID=3017)
Snooker, Pool, and Determinism (http://www.jottings.ca/john/cogitations.html)

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