Since its existence, humanity has tried to understand and make sense of everything around it, especially itself. One of the philosophical views that emerged as a result of these studies is determinism. According to determinism, everything works within the framework of certain rules. The interesting thing is that these rules also determine all kinds of human decisions, and therefore there is no such thing as free will.
Like almost every philosophical view, determinism, whose foundations were laid in the Ancient Greek period, was enriched with different ideas over the years and reached a definite definition in the 19th century. New ideas have been put forward through this view in many different fields of philosophy, especially moral philosophy. Let’s take a closer look at what determinism is and see what its representatives advocate through a few examples.
Let’s start with a basic definition; What is determinism?
Determinism, also known as determinism, determinism, determinism, determinism, is a philosophical view. According to this view, the realization of everything that exists, especially the functioning of the universe, is determined by scientific laws such as the laws of physics. Thanks to these determined laws, an event must occur. For this reason, there is no free will, because the decision of man has to take place as a result of this law or as the cause of another result.
So, what exactly does determinism stand for?
While browsing the internet, you saw the title of this article, clicked it, started reading, it caught your interest and you continue to read, or you will soon get bored and change the page. All these are the decisions you make of your own free will, without any pressure, isn’t it? According to determinism no, it is not.
The thoughts you create, the decisions you make based on them, the behaviors you exhibit according to these decisions, and all your similar actions are actually within the framework of certain rules that determine even the functioning of the universe. In other words, people do not do these of their own free will, they do it because scientific laws work like this.
The causality principle actually explains determinism clearly:
Determinism is based on the principle of causality. According to the causality principle, everything and everything is either the cause of an event or phenomenon or the result of an event or phenomenon. The smooth functioning order of this universe, which we watch with admiration, actually operates in such a perfect order, since it is invariably arranged by scientific laws.
Some determinist philosophers take things a little further and argue that if we solve the order of this universe, which operates in accordance with the principle of causality, we can obtain the knowledge of all kinds of events that will occur later. In other words, they say that if we solve this order based on the cause and effect relationship of the universe, it will be possible for us to know the future.
The emergence of determinism is the result of a rather long process:
- Thales
Thales, one of the most important Ancient Greek philosophers, is actually the first person to reveal determinism. According to him, water provides the basic functioning of the universe. Different philosophers who lived in the same period said that air and other elements were the basis of this order. In fact, Democritus unwittingly discovered the atom, philosophically of course.
The first principle of motion put forward by Aristotle was interpreted by the Stoics as logos. Descartes opposes divine direction but interprets free will as divine. According to Spinoza, god is one and perfect, which points to the concept of absolute determinism. Claude Bernard, on the other hand, approached determinism with a mechanistic logic.
In the 19th century, determinism got its full meaning:
- Simeon Poisson
In the early years of the 19th century, determinism meant the work of a machine. Simeon Poisson and Laplace expanded this concept and used it as the name of the machine-like model of the universe. Based on this model, the proposition was put forward that man is actually a part of the universe and lives according to the rules without free will.
In the period when the effects of positivist philosophy increased and conflicts emerged between abstract and concrete concepts, many scientists and philosophers such as Bergson, Boutroux, De Broglie, Heisenberg, Max Planck, Von Neumann, F. Perrîn began to put forward different views about determinism. The discovery of quantum mechanics has further enriched these ideas.
Views on determinism fall into some basic sub-branches:
- Mechanical determinism
- Economic determinism
- Social determinism
- historical determinism
- Experimental determinism
Mechanical determinism:
Mechanical determinism argues that people’s thoughts and behaviors are shaped by external events. According to this, a decision or a thought that a person makes are actually the results of different events that are outside of him.
Economic determinism:
Economic determinism argues that more concrete events affect human behavior and thoughts. Accordingly, a person’s decisions and thoughts are the result of economic reasons.
Social determinism:
Social determinism argues that people’s individual decisions and thoughts are actually a result of social causes. Social conditions such as education system, economic structure, health status affect the individual.
Historical determinism:
Historical determinism argues that human behavior and thoughts are a result of historical process rather than daily events. In other words, today’s thoughts and behaviors of people are shaped according to historical events.
Experimental determinism:
Experimental determinism is used to explain the positive sciences and has repetitive results obtained by experimentation. Since scientific rules are fixed, everything happens accordingly. There are no miracles or unexpected things.
There is also a view called indeterminism:
As the name suggests, indeterminism is a philosophical view put forward as opposed to determinism. In the period when the effects of positivist philosophy increased and conflicts emerged between abstract and concrete concepts, when quantum mechanics was discovered, a philosophical view of indeterminism was formed by scientists and philosophers.
According to indeterminism, the basic functioning of the universe is not actually determined by such immutable rules. Even if it is determined, this situation cannot explain the universe to us. For this reason, it is not possible to accept that human beings do not have free will or the principle of causality. It rejects the certainty of determinism rather than a definitive rejection.
We answered questions such as what is determinism, which says that people do not have free will and that everything works within the framework of certain rules, and what does it advocate? Of course, it is like an ocean that we can easily drown when we dive into determinism.
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