indeterminismphilosophy
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randomness in quantum mechanics quantum mechanics
A fundamental concept in quantum mechanics is that of randomness, or indeterminacy. In general, the theory predicts only the probability of a certain result. Consider the case of radioactivity. Imagine a box of atoms with identical nuclei that can undergo decay with the emission of an alpha particle. In a given time interval, a certain fraction will decay. The theory may tell precisely what...
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views on choice choice
Determinism denies the reality of choice, because of a complete causal connectedness of motive and volition with physical, psychological, social, and even unconscious forces. Indeterminists insist, on the other hand, that human beings, however limited in choices, still are free to choose among alternatives and to put such choices into action. Thus volition (in this view) is, at least...
comparison with
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determinism determinism
Indeterminism, on the other hand, though not denying the influence of behavioral patterns and certain extrinsic forces on human actions, insists on the reality of free choice. Exponents of determinism strive to defend their theory as compatible with moral responsibility by saying, for example, that evil results of certain actions can be foreseen, and this in itself imposes moral responsibility...
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Materialism Materialism
...19th centuries, when physics was deterministic, it is popularly supposed that Materialism and determinism must go together. This is not so. As indicated below, even some ancient Materialists were indeterminists, and a modern physicalist Materialism must be indeterministic because of the indeterminism that is built into modern physics. Modern physics does imply, however, that macroscopic...
French physiologist known chiefly for his discoveries concerning the role of the pancreas in digestion, the glycogenic function of the liver, and the regulation of the blood supply by the vasomotor nerves. On a broader stage, Bernard played a role in establishing the principles of experimentation in the life sciences, advancing beyond the vitalism and indeterminism of earlier physiologists to become one of the founders of experimental medicine. His most seminal contribution was his concept of the internal environment of the organism, which led to the present understanding of homeostasis—i.e., the self-regulation of vital processes.
Bernard’s father, Pierre, was a winegrower; his mother, Jeanne Saulnier, was of peasant background. When Claude was very young, his father failed in a wine-marketing venture and tried to make ends meet by teaching school. Despite his efforts, the family never prospered, and when he died, the survivors were left in debt. Educational opportunities were scarce for a poor winegrower’s son in the France of Louis XVIII. The boy studied Latin with the local priest and then was enrolled in a Jesuit-conducted school at Villefranche, where no natural science was taught. At 18 Bernard ended his secondary schooling at Thoissey without a diploma and was apprenticed to an apothecary in a Lyon suburb.
Bernard’s days were spent in menial tasks relieved by errands to a veterinary school or, on his rare times off, by visits to a theatre. He wrote a playlet, La Rose du Rhône, now lost, and then began writing Arthur de Bretagne, a historical drama in five acts. His employer was not pleased, however, and the apprenticeship came to a halt, the youth returning home in July 1833. By...
in philosophy, theory that all events, including moral choices, are completely determined by previously existing causes that preclude free will and the possibility that humans could have acted otherwise. The theory holds that the universe is utterly rational because complete knowledge of any given situation assures that unerring knowledge of its future is also possible. Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace, in the 18th century framed the classical formulation of this thesis. For him, the present state of the universe is the effect of its previous state and the cause of the state that follows it. If a mind, at any given moment, could know all of the forces operating in nature and the respective positions of all its components, it would thereby know with certainty the future and the past of every entity, large or small. The Persian poet Omar Khayyam expressed a similar deterministic view of the world in the concluding half of one of his quatrains: “And the first Morning of Creation wrote / What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.”
Indeterminism, on the other hand, though not denying the influence of behavioral patterns and certain extrinsic forces on human actions, insists on the reality of free choice. Exponents of determinism strive to defend their theory as compatible with moral responsibility by saying, for example, that evil results of certain actions can be foreseen, and this in itself imposes moral responsibility and creates a deterrent external cause that can influence actions.
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choice choice
Determinism denies the reality of choice, because of a complete causal connectedness of motive and volition with physical, psychological, social, and even unconscious forces. Indeterminists insist, on the other hand, that human beings, however limited in choices, still are free to choose among alternatives and to put such choices into action. Thus volition (in this view)...
contribution by
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Berio Berio, Luciano
...placed him among the leading representatives of the musical avant-garde. His style is notable for combining lyric and expressive musical qualities with the most advanced techniques of electronic and aleatory music.
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Cage Cage, John
...of sounds as potentially musical, and he encouraged audiences to take note of all sonic phenomena, rather than only those elements selected by a composer. To this end he cultivated the principle of indeterminism in his music. He used a number of devices to ensure randomness and thus eliminate any element of personal taste on the part of the performer: unspecified instruments and numbers of...
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Foss Foss, Lukas
German-born U.S. composer, pianist, and conductor, widely recognized for his experiments with improvisation and aleatory music.
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Mozart electronic music
...one to 51 tape recorders. For HPSCHD the composers wrote three sets of computer programs. The first, for the harpsichord solos, solved Mozart’s Musical Dice Game (K. 294d), an early chance composition in which successive bars of the music are selected by rolling dice, and modified it with other compositions chosen with a program based on the Chinese oracle I Ching...
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Pousseur Pousseur, Henri
...and the Brussels Conservatory from 1952 to 1953. Influenced by such composers as Anton Webern, he wrote serial music, in which various musical elements are rigidly controlled. Yet he also composed aleatory music, involving many types of highly unpredictable events. In Répons pour sept musiciens (1960; “Responses for Seven Musicians”), the course...
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Stockhausen Stockhausen, Karlheinz
...gives performers a choice of several possible sequences in which to play a given collection of individual moments, since they are equally interesting regardless of their order of occurrence. Chance decisions thus play an important role in...
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