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 | | Philosophy Quotes on Free Will | |
[size=35]Philosophy Quotes on Free Will
Chance and Determinism[/size] Albert Einstein on DeterminismI do not believe in freedom of will. Schopenhauer's words, 'Man can indeed do what he wants, but he cannot want what he wants', accompany me in all life situations and console me in my dealings with people, even those that are really painful to me. This recognition of the unfreedom of the will protects me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and judging individuals and losing good humour.
(Albert Einstein in Mein Glaubensbekenntnis, August 1932)Einstein believed in determinism because Einstein's relativity is a deterministic theory. However, physical reality is different than Einstein imagined, quantum physics based upon wave equations provides a more complete description of reality.
I do agree though, humans are programmed machines. We have some control over our programming, but less choice than we realise for many things. Determinism is LimitedFor example, the motion of planets is not determinable if we consider long periods of time, as Eric Lerner explains;The Cartesian idea of a set of universal laws which control natural occurrences exercised a powerful appeal in the succeeding centuries. Laplace, even as he developed his theory of a naturally evolving cosmos, endorsed the idea that, given the laws of gravitation, Newtonian mechanics, and the 'initial conditions' of the universe, every subsequent event not only can be accurately predicted, but is predetermined. The whole history of the universe, and of earth, is the inevitable operation of a set of eternal laws. In modern terms, Laplace believed that mathematical physics constitutes a Theory of Everything.This doesn't mean we can't make useful predictions about the future. We can if the amount of time we try to predict is short enough. For unstable systems this time limit is the amount of time that passes between collisions of the particles that make up the system. For the comet this is a single orbit, but for a gas a tiny fraction of a second. We can, however, make useful statistical predictions; on average the comet will probably last about 150 orbits. And of course many systems are sufficiently close to stable that we can ignore their instability because the rate at which their instabilities grow is far longer than we need to worry about. For example, the orbits of the planets in our actual solar system appear to be unpredictable in excess of twenty million years from now. For all intents and purposes, in plotting a space mission the system is absolutely stable, predictable and reversible. (Lerner, 1991) David Hume Quotes on Determinism Vs. Free WillHume comes to a similar conclusion as Spinoza and Einstein, our freedom is an illusion. However, if you read the David Hume page then you will see how the wave structure of matter (WSM) solves Hume's problem of causation and necessary connection.The thing that they failed to understand to solve this problem is that reality always has a two way interconnection, not a one way cause and effect. The spherical in and out waves explain this. This reality is causally connected, has limited determinism ( being large wave structures within infinite space) and has limited freedom (you are bound by the laws of Nature, determined by the wave properties of space).Why has the will an influence over the tongue and fingers, not over the heart or liver? (David Hume, 1737)We learn the influence of our will from experience alone. And experience only teaches us, how one event constantly follows another; without instructing us in the secret connexion, which binds them together, and renders them inseparable. (David Hume, 1737)The command of the mind over itself is limited, as well as its command over the body; and these limits are not known by reason, or any acquaintance with the nature of cause and effect, but only by experience and observation, as in all other natural events and in the operation of external objects. Our authority over our sentiments and passions is much weaker than that over our ideas; and even the latter authority is circumscribed within very narrow boundaries. (David Hume, 1737)This self-command is very different at different times. A man in health possesses more of it than one languishing with sickness. We are more master of our thoughts in the morning than in the evening: Fasting, than after a full meal. (David Hume, 1737)I shall say that I know with certainty that he is not to put his hand into the fire and hold it there till it be consumed: And this event, I think I can foretell with the same assurance, as that, if he throw himself out at the window, and meet with no obstruction, he will not remain a moment suspended in the air. (David Hume, 1737)Necessity, according to the sense in which it is here taken, has never yet been rejected, nor can ever, I think, be rejected by any philosopher. It may only, perhaps, be pretended that the mind can perceive, in the operations of matter, some farther connexion between the cause and effect; and connexion that has not place in voluntary actions of intelligent beings. Now whether it be so or not, can only appear upon examination; and it is incumbent on these philosophers to make good their assertion, by defining or describing that necessity, and pointing it out to us in the operations of material causes.
It would seem, indeed, that men begin at the wrong end of this question concerning liberty and necessity, when they enter upon it by examining the faculties of the soul, the influence of the understanding, and the operations of the will. Let them first discuss a more simple question, namely, the operations of body and of brute unintelligent matter; and try whether they can there form any idea of causation and necessity, except that of a constant conjunction of objects, and subsequent inference of the mind from one to another. (David Hume, 1737)By liberty, then, we can only mean a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will; that is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we choose to move, we also may. (David Hume, 1737)It is universally allowed that nothing exists without a cause of its existence, and that chance, when strictly examined, is a mere negative word, and means not any real power which has anywhere a being in nature. But it is pretended that some causes are necessary, some not necessary. (David Hume, 1737).. liberty, when opposed to necessity, not to constraint, is the same thing as chance; which is universally allowed to have no existence. (David Hume, 1737)Necessity may be defined in two ways, conformably to the two definitions of cause, of which it makes an essential part. It consists either in the constant conjunction of like objects, or in the inference of the understanding from one object to another. (David Hume)Actions are, by their very nature, temporary and perishing; and where they proceed not from some cause in the character and disposition of the person who performed them, they can neither redound to his honour, if good; nor infamy, if evil. (David Hume, 1737)No contingency anywhere in the universe; no indifference; no liberty. While we act, we are, at the same time, acted upon. The ultimate Author of all our volitions is the Creator of the world, who first bestowed motion on this immense machine, and placed all beings in that particular position, whence every subsequent event, by an inevitable necessity, must result. Human actions, therefore, either can have no moral turpitude at all, as proceeding from so good a cause; or if they have any turpitude, they must involve our Creator in the same guilt, while he is acknowledged to be their ultimate cause and author. (David Hume, 1737) | |
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