William James and the Dilemma of Determinism

     William James wrote an essay on the Dilemma of Determinism, discussing the different kinds of determinism and the difference between determinism and indeterminism. In my presentation, however, I ended up going down a rabbit hole fueled by a mix of my curiosity and my interest in scientific theories that somewhat matched up to what William James was discussing in his essay. In his essay, James starts out by stating "a common opinion prevails that the juice has ages ago been pressed out of the free-will controversy" and firmly states that he believes free-will to be true. He goes on to describe how we desire to know more about the universe around us, stating "our only means of finding out is to try." Sort of like the scientific method that we are all taught about in grade school. He equates this desire to learn to be like an alter to unknown gods. James mentions two words that are often used in the free-will arguement that we must immediately dispose of to progress, freedom and chance. He says he wishes to keep chance, but wants to get rid of freedom.

    Freedom, as stated by James, has had its eulogistic associations so far overshadowed all the rest of its meaning that both parties claim the sole right to use it, and determinists today insist that they alone are freedom's champions. That was a bit of a run on sentence, so basically freedom's definition has been twisted and skewed so much that freedom, when used in the context of determinism, no longer means "freedom". James goes on to describe two different types of determinists. There are the old-fashioned determinists, or hard determinism, who do not shrink from such words as fatality, bondage of the will, necessitation, and the like. The second type is known as soft determinism, or free-will determinist, who abhor harsh words, and repudiating fatality, necessity, and even predetermination. They say that it's real name is freedom, for freedom is only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom. 

    James brings up the question of determinism. He talks about determinism and indeterminism, stating it is near impossible to find the difference between the two, then goes on to describe the difference between the two.

    What does determinism profess? Determinism talks about that those parts of the universe already laid down absoluetly appoint and decree what the parts shall be. So the future is set in stone and the present is already determined and any other future component that the one fixed from eternity is impossible. Determinists say they exist nowhere, and that necessity on the one hand and impossibility on the other are the sole categories of the real. 

    "There is no such thing as coincidence in this world, there is only the inevitable." -Yuuko, xXxHolic

    What about indeterminism? Indeterminists say that the parts have a certain amount of loose play on one another, so that the laying down of one of them does not necessarily determine what the others shall be. So think the multi-verse or multi-possibility.

    This is when I started to go down a rabbit hole and asked myself "well, that sounds a lot like the butterfly effect and the theory of multiple universes or bubble universes in physics, doesn't it?"

    Let's start with the butterfly effect, but let's not have me explain it, instead lets have Saiki from the show Saiki K explain it. In season 1 episode 6 part e, Saiki wakes up from a dream where a big explosion near his home takes place. So on his way to school, he passes by where the explosion took place in his dream and picks up a rock. He goes on to explain why. "An accident usually happens as a result of a specific series of events. So one tiny change could lead to an entirely different outcome. Let's look into the future where I didn't pick up the rock. One minute from now a highschool girl in a miniskirt runs down the street. She'll slip on the rock and tumble violently through the air, almost likes she's doing a somersault kick. This will send the rock flying straight towards an oil tanker, at that very moment the driver will lower the window to talk to the gas station employee and the rock will hit him in the head. He'll fall foward, crashing into a gas pump. Gasoline will leak everywhere, Meanwhile, the girl who slipped on the rock will have landed in a less than lady-like pose. Just then a man on a scooter will pass by, his attention diverted. As a result he'll whipe-out on the spilled gas. The scooter will slide into the gas pump which will lead to a big explosion."

    "The accident was going to be caused by a series of unlikely coincidences like the kind you see in manga. If the school girl wasn't running, then she wouldn't have tripped on the rock and ended up bottoms up. If she wore sweat pants under her skirt, the perve on the scooter wouldn't have wiped-out. Then there's the truck driver who, if he'd only rolled down his window a second later, he wouldn't have been hit by the rock, or even if he had a modicum of skill, he could have caught it. No matter how big an accident is, its always triggered by something minor, so a minor change is all it takes to prevent it."

    TL:DR, the butterfly effect is any small choice could have a huge impact on the future, so be careful of the choices you make.

    Now for the multiverse, multiple dimensions, or bubble universe theory! The multiverse is a probable idea in physics where this universe isn't the only possible universe out there and they're all essentially the same with some small changes or some big changes. In one universe, I wouldn't be dyslexic, or, in one universe, Earth wouldn't even exist! Here's a video going into even more detail about this theory:

    

    I find this theory pretty interesting! I went into more detail on why I liked this theory during my presentation, but essentially, I just find it interesting that in one universe I could be a completely different person, or just don't exist. 

    So... what does this have to do with determinism? Essentially, we all have free-will and in that, we choose what future we are inevitibly going to have based on our choices made in free-will. I'm a firm believer in, yes, there may be multiple possibilities/dimensions out there, but since this is the dimension I'm stuck in, why not work hard to try and make it good?

    What are some of your thoughts on determinism, indeterminism, or free-will? What do you think of the butterfly effect or the theory of the multiverse?

    Thank you for reading!

    -Betti Houser