Determinism

Determinism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that all physical events, including human thought and actions, are causally determined by the unbreakable chain of cause-consequence and, therefore, the current state in some sense "determines" the future. There are different formulations of determinism, differing in the details of their claims. There are three types of determinism.

Logical determinism holds that the truth value of any proposition is timeless. For example: the sentence "Tomorrow it will rain" is true or false, and if it is true, then tomorrow it will rain by logical necessity.

Epistemic determinism holds that if any future event is known in advance, then that event must inevitably occur.

Causal determinism holds that all events are the result of natural laws and preceding conditions.

To distinguish the different forms of determinism, it is convenient to classify them according to the degree of determinism they postulate:

 

Strong determinism holds that there are no genuinely random or chance events and that, in general, the future is potentially predictable from the present. The past could also be "predictable" if we know perfectly well a specific situation in the chain of causation. Pierre-Simon Laplace defended this type of determinism.

Weak determinism holds that it is probability that is determined by present events, or that there is a strong correlation between the present state and future states, even allowing for the influence of essentially random and unpredictable events.

It should be noted that there is an important difference between determination and predictability of events. Determination exclusively implies the absence of chance in the cause-effect chain that gives rise to a specific event. Predictability is a potential fact derived from the accurate determination of events, but it requires that the initial conditions (or any point) of the causal chain be known.

 

Soren Kierkegaard. the angst of living

 Soren Kierkegaard argued that the self has absolute freedom to choose and that the silence of God condemns us to uncertainty.

 

After a tormented and lonely life, Soren Kierkegaard died in 1855 of tuberculosis in Copenhagen, the city where he was born and lived. He was only 42 years old, which was not an obstacle for him to leave an important philosophical work that influenced authors such as Heidegger and Sartre.

 

 

Kierkegaard's intellectual legacy was strongly marked by his origins. His father, a man of an absorbing Lutheran faith, wanted his son to be a pastor. But Soren chose to study philosophy in Copenhagen and soon became highly critical of the Church, convinced that he had turned away from God to serve men. His writings in various local publications drew the ire of well-thinking society, which considered him an eccentric character.

 

 

Kierkegaard's thought is, to a large extent, a reaction against Hegel's philosophy, which had elevated Reason not only to the motor of History but also to individual decisions. Everything real is rational, according to the well-known Hegelian postulate. Kierkegaard challenges this thesis: human existence is not governed by absolute values nor by economic laws, as Marx would later argue, but by the free exercise of the will. Man is built by choosing his own life.

 

 

What matters is not the theory nor does it make sense to seek an objective explanation of the world. What counts is the self. The only real thing is the singular. In this sense, he writes: “What I really need is to see perfectly clearly what I must do, not what I must know. What matters to me is to understand the very meaning and definition of my being, to see what God wants from me, what I must do. It is necessary to find a truth to live and die.

 

 

Therefore, and in this he is a precursor of Sartre and existentialism, we are not born with a determined essence, but we are pure existence. Each individual has absolute freedom to choose, to do good or evil. We are, then, condemned to be free.

 

 

Kierkegaard experienced this painfully, since he was always a very indecisive person. Madly in love with Regina Olsen, he called off his engagement at the last moment. He always regretted his decision.