From: Rakesh Bhandari (rakeshb@stanford.edu)
Date: Fri Nov 22 2002 - 13:44:38 EST
Putting aside the Heisenberg principle, I don't think indeterminism at the atomic level or a random element in atomic interactions can be said to the basis for human freedom. But what are to make of Marx's Epicurean focus on how atoms 'swerve' unpredictably from their paths or the modern recognition of the unpredictability of radioactive deacy? Can science be said to have withdrawn its moral opposition to free will just because with the advent of quantum theory physics no longer seems to a scheme of deterministic laws? Yet what does the freedom of a swerving atom or a radioactive nucleus have to do with the freedom of a human being to choose between two courses of action, as David Layzer has asked? Has anyone explained the connection convincingly? My guess is that the last chapter of this book is relevant: Cassirer, Ernst. 1956. Determinism and indeterminism in modern physics. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut. rb
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