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All > Philosophy > Determinism  

Determinism is false

Revision History - v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7, v8

Published by soc, August 10, 2005, 12:04 am GMT
Participation: default  
Type: Deductive  

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1) PREMISE:   
If A=B and B=C are given as logical propositions, one can easily imagine one human thought which produces "A equals C" and another human thought which produces "A is not equal to C."

In other words, illogical thoughts are possible.

none

2) FROM 1 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
Contradictory thoughts exist.

1

3) PREMISE:   
Physical laws are not capable of understanding the content of a thought.

1

4) PREMISE:   
Contradictory thoughts can not both be true because of the law of noncontradiction.

none

5) FROM 2,3 AND 4 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
There is no inherent mechanism within the laws of physics for determining which thoughts correspond to reality and which do not.

2

6) PREMISE:   
A true thought is one that accurately corresponds to reality and a false thought is one that does not correspond to reality.

1

7) FROM 5 AND 6 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
There is no inherent truth detection mechanism within the laws of physics

1

8) FROM 7 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
All thoughts produced by deterministic systems are of unknowable truth value.

2

9) PREMISE:   
Definition of "determinism": The teaching that every event in the universe is caused and controlled by the laws of physics; that there is no free will in humans.

1

10) FROM 9 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
If determinism is true then all of our thoughts are governed solely by the laws of physics.

none

11) FROM 8 AND 10 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
If determinism is true then all of our thoughts are of unknowable truth value.

none

12) PREMISE:   
A meaningful claim is one in which a person has sufficient reason to believe it to be true, beyond their own level of reasonable doubt.

(We, of course, can not claim to know things with certainty.)

none

13) FROM 12 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
A thought of unknowable truth value can not possibly be a meaningful claim.

none

14) FROM 11 AND 13 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
If determinism is true then there exists no way to make a meaningful claim that a given thought is either true or false.

none

15) PREMISE:   
Knowledge is a meaningful claim that a given thought or set of thoughts correctly corresponds to reality.

2

16) FROM 14 AND 15 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
If determinism is true then knowledge is impossible.

none

17) PREMISE:   
Humans have achieved a significant amount of technological progress.

none

18) PREMISE:   
Technological progress is only possible with knowledge.

1

19) FROM 16,17 AND 18 IT FOLLOWS THAT:   
Determinism is false.

none


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