Here are two things I found useful in thinking about recent events in Afghanistan.
First is a piece by my friend who served there.
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I think he’s actually referring to fatalism when he talks about determinism. A fatalist believes the outcome is immutable. The determinist believes that effect follows cause and you can change the output by changing the input. I see either fatalism or nihilism, both dangerous.
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Isn’t determinism just reality? Or is determinism a concept only insofar as it’s disputed by fatalists?
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Fatalism is like you’re gonna die at midnight and there’s nothing you can do about it — the universe will arrange a way to get you no matter what. Determinism is just cause and effect.
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Are you sure re: definition of determinism? My mistake if so.
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I could be wrong but did 7 years of philosophy in college.
Agree that determinism is cause and effect, however, term is most useful in the negative. Some systems are too complex to allow any individual to understand inputs and outputs. Non-deterministic systems like markets and social hierarchies do not yield to deterministic analysis.
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I don't mind Joe's usage of the term in the piece. Determinism, fatalism, and Peter Thiel's American exceptionalism, are all species of a sort of fatal conceit, the foolish assumption that you have complete knowledge of cause and can therefore control and predict complex systems.
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Causal networks can encode both deterministic processes as well quantum phenomena like double slit experiment so can have your cale and eat it too. See: Wolfram Physics
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Hey now
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