Quantum mechanics and the question of determinism in science

Abstract

Classical science and in fact Post-Newtonian science up till the early twentieth
century were mired in a deterministic interpretation of realities. The deterministic
hypothesis in science holds that everything in nature has a cause and if one could
know the antecedent causes, he could predict the future with certainty. But
quantum mechanics holds that sub-atomic particles, though the ultimate materials
from which all the complexity of existence in the universe emerges, do not obey
deterministic laws, hence, their activities are causally indeterminate and could only
be understood with probability. This paper argues that quantum mechanics can
not totally be free from determinism, for it has subtly conceded to determinism in
holding that the sub-atomic particles are the building blocks of the macro world,
and that there is interconnection between entities in the universe, even at the nonmanifest
level. The probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics only betray
our human limitation of the knowledge of nature, which, I believe still have lots of
tricks in our sleeves over mankind.


Sophia: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 8(1) 2005:72-79



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