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That's a very lazy school of thought though. It's just atheistic Calvinism, a tautology masquerading as a "philosophy". Calvin believed in pre-destination (you
by paulusthe 4y ago
That's a very lazy school of thought though. It's just atheistic Calvinism, a tautology masquerading as a "philosophy".
Calvin believed in pre-destination (your fate and every decision you make is decided before you exist) on the grounds that, because God exists and is omnipotent, what you are doing must therefore be what God wants to happen, both good and bad. After all, God is omnipotent, so there you go.
Today's Calvinists just replace God-driven destiny with nature-driven destiny, but the underlying tautology (X exists, therefore X was always destined to exist, as proven by the fact that it exists at all) remains the same. In fact, it's an arguably more ignorant version of Calvinism, because it requires that one completely dismisses any knowledge they have of probability theory. So it's the "smarter" Calvinism that requires you be ignorant of 20th century mathematical advances.
Hate that crap. The only people I hear talking about it are silicon valley utopians, which is probably the other reason I hate it.
- flanked-evergl 4y ago> In fact, it's an arguably more ignorant version of Calvinism, because it requires that one completely dismisses any knowledge they have of probability theory No to pick too many nits, but I think it is well established that knowledge of formal sciences (i.e. mathematics) does not impart knowledge about natural sciences (i.e. physics). While maths a useful tool, there are no established rules of inference for reality, and without rules of inference you can't really make claims on infinite sets. Natural sciences allow us to find mathematical constructs that make good predictions within specific constraints or that have not yet been falsified, just because something is true in probability theory does not make it true in reality.
- anotherman554 4y agoIf humans lacked free will, probability would still be useful, because humans use it when they have imperfect information about an upcoming event.
- yamtaddle 4y ago> In fact, it's an arguably more ignorant version of Calvinism, because it requires that one completely dismisses any knowledge they have of probability theory. So it's the "smarter" Calvinism that requires you be ignorant of 20th century mathematical advances. I entirely fail to see how probability theory means it's impossible for the universe to be deterministic.
- jandrewrogers 4y agoI don't follow this argument. The coexistence of probability theory and strict determinism create no issues in modern mathematics.