Determinism and indeterminism in philosophy

1. Mechanical determinism 2. Fatalism 3. Indeterminism 4. Principles of regularity

There is an indisputable fact that all phenomena and processes in the world are interconnected. This connection is explained by the philosophical principle of determinism.

Determinism is a doctrine devoted to the universal dependence of processes and phenomena. The word is of Latin origin and means “to separate” or “to define.” The first ideas about the mutual connection of events and phenomena appeared in everyday life and turned into the idea that nothing can appear from nothing and turn into nothing.

Classical philosophy of the 17th-18th centuries describes the idea that the surrounding space consists of separate parts. Philosophers of that time imagined the Universe as an empty space in which substances move along given trajectories. Matter is represented by indivisible atoms with constant mass. The universe is characterized by absolute time and space. That is, the Universe seemed to them like a well-oiled mechanism.

The constructed causes and effects fully correspond to the necessary phenomena. In such a world, accidents are not accidental. Random are only those things that man has not been able to explain until now, but given the rationality of the world and the cognitive ability of human abilities, as a result, man is able to solve these riddles.

This picture of the world was formed with the participation of outstanding scientists I. Newton and R. Descartes. Indeed, thanks to Newton’s physics and Descartes’ philosophy, correct and adequate ideas about the interconnection of all events and phenomena in the world were born, but at the same time, a false opinion was formed about the exclusion of chance and the complete necessity of what is happening. This form of determinism is called “mechanical”.

Mechanical determinism

The basis of mechanical determinism is the judgment about interactions and relationships of all kinds and the denial of chance as such. The most famous supporter of this trend is B. Spinoza. His main idea was that a person considers as chance those phenomena and events that are not subject to explanation.

Another proponent of mechanical determinism, Pierre Simon Laplace, suggested that by bringing together all the knowledge about all kinds of events and phenomena taking place at a given moment in time, it is possible to predict future events and phenomena. This theory was later called "Laplace's demon".

In the era of mechanical determinism, man was considered a cog in a well-functioning large mechanism. The person's personality was not given much importance. Science and philosophy did not consider the spiritual qualities of man; they were not able to explain these manifestations. As a result, knowledge about man was unknown to modern science. To compensate for this shortcoming, philosophy focused on the freedom, morality and beauty of the human person, as a part of nature.

The corresponding types of determinism are called causal, logical and theological

Universal laws express the relationship between the most universal properties and phenomena of nature, society and human thinking. This may seem quite realistic, especially since the chain of deduction up to the fundamental laws of organization cannot be large and complex. This includes spatial and temporal correlations, functional dependencies, symmetry relationships, etc.

Difficulties in understanding the problems of causality in modern times. physics had the consequence of strengthening tendencies towards I. in modern Burzh. AND.). In the history of philosophy, starting with ancient Greek. Various forms of indeterminism have become widespread in modern bourgeois philosophy.

Fatalism

At some point in time, philosophy completely stopped talking about a person as an individual person, without considering him in the overall picture of the world, highlighting the “subject of knowledge.” Under such conditions, a new direction called fatalism arose. This doctrine is based on the judgment of the universal predetermination of all events and phenomena.

Scientific discoveries of the second half of the 19th century undermined trust in scientific dogmas and truths and produced a revolutionary turn in judgments and views on the classical picture of the world. The mechanical approach was replaced by organics and systematicity. The Universe was now seen as a connected, indivisible totality.

According to classical ideas, the Universe looked like a clockwork, and according to non-classical ideas, it looked like a prototype of a web or network.

The main reasons for the emergence of new judgments were the discoveries of scientists A. Einstein, N. Bohr, E. Rutherford and W. Heisenberg. V. Heisenberg considered the most important achievement of science to be that it destroyed the classical framework of knowledge about the world and expanded the framework of knowledge. In his opinion, reality differs only in whether we see it or not.

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Quantum theory explained that the concept of nature cannot be rigid, since measurements depend on instruments and their correct settings. That is, for more reliable measurements, a person must be present in the experiments, so he cannot be excluded from the overall picture of the world, as the classics did. W. Heisenberg's scientific judgments were called the principle of uncertainty relations.

The essence of this principle is the impossibility of determining the exact position of several microparticles at the same moment, that is, if you determine the exact coordinate, momentum and speed of one particle, then the same parameters for another particle at that moment will be uncertain. It should be noted that this uncertainty is not at all related to the accuracy of instruments; it is related to the objective properties of micro-objects.

Thus, new scientific discoveries changed the familiar picture of the world. It became clear that consciousness is not within the framework of objective connections between phenomena. Matter was no longer considered only matter; plasma, vacuum, magnetic field, etc. were also considered matter. Thus, with the science of the 20th century, the world has become more complex and more difficult to perceive. In addition, man was returned to the general picture of the world.

Thanks to this, genetics, biology and other human sciences began to develop. With their help, a person took a different look at the essence of existence. Thanks to advances in astrological physics, man made a breakthrough into the macrocosmic world.

The meaning of the word “Indeterminism” in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia

The progress of science is impossible without and independently of the principles of dialectics. In 5 volumes - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Edited by F.V. Konstantinov. New Philosophical Encyclopedia: In 4 vols. M.: Thought. Edited by V. S. Stepin. INDETERMINISM - (new Latin, from in not, and terminus boundary). Indeterminism), or the cognitive value of causal explanation in science (methodological Indeterminism).

Since there was no experimental natural science in ancient science, only theoretical research methods were studied in it. With the emergence of experimental natural science in the 17th century, the problem of researching methods and means of experimental study of nature came to the fore. To achieve these goals, in his opinion, two abilities of the mind are needed: intuition and deduction. With the help of intuition, the simplest and most obvious principles are seen, from which all other truths follow deductively.

They were subsequently systematized by J. Stuart Mill into the methods of similarity, difference, concomitant changes and residues. Thus, the founders of the doctrine of method relied in their views on the main types of logical reasoning, which are explicitly or implicitly used in both everyday and scientific thinking.

2. Complex scientific problems are the least amenable to algorithmization, and their solution cannot be reduced to the application of any ready-made rules and recipes. They require the mobilization of all the intellectual efforts of the scientist and persistent creative search. In this case, guesses are also used, especially at the initial stage of the search, but scientific knowledge is not reduced to a continuous chain of guesses and assumptions.

Indeterminism

In the 20th century, the doctrine of “indeterminism” arose, which is the complete opposite of determinism. Thanks to research devoted to the problems of human existence, it became clear that there is no clear connection between all ongoing events and phenomena. Indeterminism denies the causes and consequences of everything that happens, that is, not everything happens for any specific reasons. Since the universal connection has not been proven, it cannot be considered a dogma.

Throughout the development of philosophy, there has been a confrontation between determinism and indeterminism. For example, the deterministic ideas of B. Spinoza existed alongside the indeterminism of D. Hume. Back in the 17th century, the ideas of mechanical determinism reigned, and the beginning of the 20th century was characterized by the emergence of the opposite direction in the ideas of the surrounding world - indeterminism. Indeterminism answers questions about the origin of events and cultural phenomena, and deterministic ideas are limited by nature.

Determinism began to revive, as did the reasons for its criticism. The famous German physicist M. Born believed that although classical ideas and ideas about the world were eliminated, physics remained a science based on the cause-and-effect nature of events and phenomena.

Based on all the research and statements, we can say that the relationships between events and their causes are not excluded at all, they have only changed in some way. As a result, the principles of determinism also changed. In other words, determinism has ceased to be the only doctrine that explains the relationship between events and phenomena.

Today, determinism is expressed by several principles:

  • Principles of the universal relationship between phenomena and events.
  • Principles of cause and effect.
  • Principles of diversity of deterministic forms.
  • Principles of patterns.

The principles of interconnection are that all phenomena are interconnected. The principles of cause and effect indicate the existence of causes of certain phenomena and events that are a consequence of these causes. Moreover, in modern determinism, causality is considered as one of many connections between phenomena and events. That is, one phenomenon can be the cause of another.

The problem with mechanical determinism was that it compared causality with necessity, completely excluding possible randomness. In modern determinism, the factor of chance is taken into account. Thus, both necessary and random events have their causes.

The principle of diversity provides for the existence of many connections between events and phenomena, which may not be cause-and-effect. Non-causal relationships are characterized by the exclusion of the reasons for their occurrence.

These are connections such as:

  • connections between different states of an object;
  • functional;
  • probabilistic determination;
  • target determination;
  • conditional determination.

Functional connections are characterized by their existence at one point in time. These connections can be considered forced, and there is no genetic relationship between them.

The connections between different states of an object influence each other, but are not the causes of their occurrence. Probabilistic determination is characterized by uncertainty. That is, it implies the state of various options for the development of an event, depending on the created conditions.

Target determination depends on human activity; it is characteristic of culture and society as a whole.

Conditional determination is characterized by causal and uncausal changes.

See what “INDETERMINISM” is in other dictionaries:

It is also wrong to draw a conclusion about the causelessness of microprocesses on the basis that quantum physics reflects them in a special statistical way. Organic indeterminists (E. Sinnott, L. Denn, P. Vandries and others) believe that the behavior of genes is described statistically. It is based on indeterministic I., lies the identification of causality with unambiguous predictability. I. draw their own conclusion regarding the bankruptcy of the principle of causality in general. I. and demonstrate the fruitfulness of dialectical-materialistic.

What is the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes?

Indeterminate tomatoes are easy to distinguish from determinate tomatoes even before the flowers and fruits appear.

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Seedlings

When shoots appear after 3-4 days, the cotyledon knee straightens and by its length you can indirectly determine the type of future bush. In indeterminate varieties it is longer (3-5 cm) than in determinate varieties (1-3 cm). However, with a lack of light, the seedling can become very elongated and then it is quite difficult to determine what kind of bush it will be. The photo shows an indeterminate tomato seedling, the subcotyledon is quite long.

Seedling

When the seedlings reach the age of appearance of the first flower cluster, you can easily determine the type of future bush. Indeterminate tomatoes form the first cluster after 8-9 true leaves and above, determinate - after 6-7 true leaves and below. An example of an indeterminate variety is visible in the photo, there are already 9 true leaves, but not a single flower cluster.

Mature plants

When a plant has been planted for a long time, has grown well and has several clusters of fruits, it is difficult to determine the number of leaves before the first ovary, since the seedlings could have been buried and part of the stem remained underground.

Indeterminate varieties plant flowers through 3 leaves. Determinate tomatoes always have less than 3 true leaves between the trusses.

On a plant of determinate varieties you can always find a shoot whose growth ends at the ovary; in indeterminate varieties this will not happen. The only mistaking an indeterminate tomato for a determinate one can be when, during the formation of the plant, the shoot is pinched immediately behind the flower raceme and it seems that the shoot has finished growing on it. Therefore, you need to be careful and count the leaves between the ovaries as a check.

In the photo you can see how indeterminate varieties grow.

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There are tomatoes for greenhouses that form tall plants, but belong to determinate varieties of tomatoes, forming clusters in less than 3 leaves. These are the majority of modern greenhouse hybrids. There are also standard indeterminate tomatoes that have a low-growing bush, for example, the well-known late-ripening variety Volgogradsky 5/95.

A diagram of the different types of bush is shown in the diagram.

The standard type of bush is in no way associated with branching, the formation of clusters and has corrugated leaves and a thickened central stem, which keeps the plant erect even with a large number of fruits and does not require garter. An example of a standard determinate tomato variety, the photo of which is located below, shows how compact this bush is.

Dialectical materialism as determinism

Most nineteenth-century philosophers believed that the structure of society and its specificity were determined by the ideas it shared. Ideas and reason, from their point of view, ruled the world. At the same time, Marx, as well as his supporters and followers, decided to approach the problem from a different angle. They declared the main factor determining social development to be material. That is, the fact that people, in the process of working together, produce the means of living, represents the foundation of society. They determine all other types of human activity, as well as their social, psychological, and spiritual activity. Moreover, any morality, religion, etc. are just a reflection of material life, and if they have some kind of independence, it is only relative. The theory of determinism in this presentation focused on the role of the economic factor and its dominance. However, in the modern world these concepts are no longer defining.

This is a concept in philosophy and psychology

  1. human inner world;
  2. environment;
  3. some primary reality (God, nature or space).

With the advent of probability-theoretic research methods, the concept of causality was recognized as imperfect. The primary ones turned out to be statistical patterns that express the “average” states of a set of quantities. They became the fundamental basis of models of the probabilistic world.

Indeterminism is completely opposed to deterministic views - this is a philosophical direction whose followers completely deny the causality of phenomena and their connection.

In psychology

It is a model consisting of three factors that influence the events that occur:

  1. surrounding reality;
  2. personal qualities of a person;
  3. behavior.

The environment influences the manifestations of a person’s character and his behavior, just as behavior itself depends on the surrounding reality.

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