The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature
One of the greatest contributions of Albert Einstein is that he showed how the concept of the “deterministic universe” could be used to explain the complexity of the human condition. What Einstein described as “deterministic” was far from deterministic. What is deterministic is a simple statement that has no basis in reality, and yet it continues to be used and interpreted.
We have all heard the expression “if given enough time, the world comes to us as it is.” Unfortunately, the same expression can be translated into “if given enough information, the world comes to us as it is.” When something is not yet known, it is said to be “deterministic.”
It’s important to recognize that the meaning of Einstein’s statement is far from clear.
For many years Einstein’s statement was used to support the view that “everything is deterministic.” He was correct on that point. Many things that we perceive to be deterministic must in fact be only partially deterministic. The only thing that “deterministic” means is that the universe is predictable, so that there has never been any new information that could change its course.
For the general public, the meaning of “determinism” is clear. It is an expression of the statement that the world will always be as it is: there is a complete accounting of all physical phenomena. As we know, there are numerous examples of the universe being “deterministic.” This statement is not meant to imply randomness, but to demonstrate that the world is in a constant state of equilibrium.
However, there are many people who are troubled by the idea that the world could be deterministic. This is especially true for those who are interested in “scientific” knowledge. Many of these people view the concept of “determinism” as the “purity” of scientific observation. Because scientific observations do not change, the world could in fact be viewed as being simply that: a piece of information to be accepted and used.
The term “scientific” is often used to describe the world of knowledge. Many scientists tend to see the world as being controlled in a rational way and without the effects of human intervention. It’s this belief that drives this view of the world and is not the same as “determinism.”
The phrase “scientific objectivity” was popularized in the 1950s and 1960s by researchers of the field of psychology. Many psychologists now believe that their beliefs about the world are objectively justified and correct. They attribute the validity of these beliefs to the fact that the world is controlled by rational processes, without the human contribution.
As a result, many people who are skeptical of the “determinism” of the “scientific objectivity” tend to dismiss the concept of “determinism” in any kind of context other than scientific observation and use the term to describe their perception of the world. The term is an expression of the belief that the universe is in some way controlled by the human mind.
When people who don’t see the world in this way adopt the term “determinism,” they do so for different reasons.
One group of people rejects determinism because they believe that the world could be controlled by other forces. Another group rejects determinism because they do not believe that the world could be controlled because of the human minds. A third group rejects determinism because they reject the way the world is actually controlled by the human mind.
When I was a child, I was taught that if given enough time, I would hear a voice telling me what to do. I was taught that time was the most precious thing in the universe and that if given enough of it, it could be used to effect change.
I believed that if I was given enough time to hear the voice, the voice would take care of me and give me the results that I was looking for.
Today, as I write this, I know that it is completely wrong to think only with my head. I can’t imagine how such a thing would even occur in the mind of a human being. To say that the voice could change is a statement of absolute certainty. The idea that the human mind could have a place in such a statement is completely and utterly ridiculous in its absurdity. If the human mind can change, then it is just a part of the mechanism that controls the world.
At times in life, as a person with an interest in physics or philosophy, I encounter statements such as “everything is now in its full and final form, and consequently, there can be no further change in its fundamental form.”
The use of such statements to support the idea that the world might be subject to the influence of the human mind has been around for a while and has had a significant impact in the course of history.
