DETERMINISM (Ontic)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 895 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
Until now, we have used the word “determinism” in an epistemic sense: “A theory was said to be deterministic if all the distinctions made within that theory were causally conserved. Ontic determinism then should mean that we would infer from the determinism of our theory (e.g. classical mechanics) that the real world to which the theory referred were also deterministic (e.g. the world of LAPLACE)” (F. HEYLIGHEN, 1989, p. 379).
Conversely, concepts like simultaneity in relativistic terms, bifurcations, emergence or chaotic attractors lead us to a kind of ontological agnosticism.
F. HEYLIGHEN asks: “Is causality ”real“ or ”objective“, and does it exist independently of the observer (ontic interpretation)? Or is it merely a cognitive construct, an association between subjective ideas or experiences (epistemic interpretation)” (p.362).
- “We would, hence, tend to conclude that the question of whether the world is (ontically) deterministic is a meaningless one, to which all possible answers are either trivial or unprovable in principle” (p.379).
See also
Ontological skepticism