Scientific Determinism

--Summary of Class:

--The Story of H (from Glover)

--Was he free to act as he did?

--Fate

--God's omniscience

--Scientific Determinism:  All events have a cause.  Science discovers causal laws.  Science shows that all the events that happen in the world had to happen the way they did (given the laws of nature).  But human actions are events are events in natural world.   Seems to follow that human actions could not therefore be different than they are.  We could not do otherwise.  Our sense of freedom is an illusion.  Appearance and reality.  Could we then be said to be responsible for our actions?

1) Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade.

2) Jones heated water to 100 degrees centigrade.

3) Therefore, the water boiled.

Given 1 and 2, the water had to boil.   Given the state of our brain at particular moment, we could not have acted differently than we did.