Kinds of Determinism in Science

Determinism is a doctrine or assumption best defined in the realm of the natural sciences. In this paper I explain in detail the four senses of determinism, from the most fundamental metaphysical sense, to the most complex epistemic (predictive) sense. I take as a starting point the analysis of dete...

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Main Author: Alexander Maar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2019-12-01
Series:Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology
Online Access:https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/70059
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author Alexander Maar
author_facet Alexander Maar
author_sort Alexander Maar
collection DOAJ
description Determinism is a doctrine or assumption best defined in the realm of the natural sciences. In this paper I explain in detail the four senses of determinism, from the most fundamental metaphysical sense, to the most complex epistemic (predictive) sense. I take as a starting point the analysis of determinism offered by Stephen Kellert. Each of these senses is then expounded and commented with a view to explore some of the implications of each of them in theoretical physics. The most important of my tasks in this paper is to differentiate between the metaphysical and epistemic consequences of the deterministic assumption. My objective is to show that determinism as an ontological tenet is capable of withstanding criticism, even though predictive determinism is likely to be false.
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spelling doaj-art-19ea5d4fdf2845aca5c5b38ccfe497872025-08-20T02:10:07ZengUniversidade Federal de Santa CatarinaPrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology1808-17112019-12-0123310.5007/1808-1711.2019v23n3p50333890Kinds of Determinism in ScienceAlexander Maar0New Zealand Association of Philosophers Sociedade Brasileira de Filosofia AnalíticaDeterminism is a doctrine or assumption best defined in the realm of the natural sciences. In this paper I explain in detail the four senses of determinism, from the most fundamental metaphysical sense, to the most complex epistemic (predictive) sense. I take as a starting point the analysis of determinism offered by Stephen Kellert. Each of these senses is then expounded and commented with a view to explore some of the implications of each of them in theoretical physics. The most important of my tasks in this paper is to differentiate between the metaphysical and epistemic consequences of the deterministic assumption. My objective is to show that determinism as an ontological tenet is capable of withstanding criticism, even though predictive determinism is likely to be false.https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/70059
spellingShingle Alexander Maar
Kinds of Determinism in Science
Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology
title Kinds of Determinism in Science
title_full Kinds of Determinism in Science
title_fullStr Kinds of Determinism in Science
title_full_unstemmed Kinds of Determinism in Science
title_short Kinds of Determinism in Science
title_sort kinds of determinism in science
url https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/70059
work_keys_str_mv AT alexandermaar kindsofdeterminisminscience