O determinism is a theoretical current that states that there is a set of conditions that determine the actions of subjects in the world, speculating, therefore, the existence of a great universal cohesion that interconnects all individuals as parts of a single context. Determinist thinking was present in several areas of knowledge, including those considered non-scientific.
Read too: Positivism - theoretical current inspired by the ideal of continuous progress
what is determinism
The word determinism comes from the verb “to determine”. The verb to determine comes from the Latin determine, which literally means “finishing out”, that is, finishing with a view to something external. Determinism as a philosophical current asserts that there is a chain of causal relationships (of cause and effect) that determine world building standards, even interfering in people's actions and lives.
Determinism starts from the idea that there is a determination of the action and life of individuals through the environment
, by the factors genetic, by the religious context or by some aspect. Determination, in this sense, is constant in the world, which makes it necessary to believe that there is an interconnection of various elements that are related in the Universe.
Coming out of science and philosophy, if we think about the astrological composition of the horoscope, there is a central idea that the position of the stars at the time of a person's birth will determine his personality traits. In the Judeo-Christian conception of life, all people have a destiny written by God and are determined by him. The ancient Greeks believed in a type of determinism that became known as fatalism and it was well exposed in the Greek tragedies.
THE Greek mythology affirmed the existence of three divine figures, the three moiras, who, accompanied by other deities, determined the fate of humans. The moiras were spinners, with one of them spinning the thread of life (representing birth), the other weaved the thread (representing life itself) and the last one cut this thread (representing death). the tragedy Oedipus King, written by the Greek tragediographer sophocles, makes an excellent allusion to Greek fatalism.
ediporei tells the story of Oedipus, born into a family consisting of Laius, king of the city of Thebes, and his wife, Jocasta. By consulting the oracle about your son's fate, Laius discovers that Oedipus would kill him and marry Jocasta. Terrified, Laius orders a servant to abandon the baby between Thebes and Corinth with his feet tied to a tree for him to die.
However, a shepherd finds Oedipus, and the king of Corinth, Polybus, adopts him and raises him as his legitimate son. Upon becoming an adult, Oedipus consults the oracle, which enlightens him on his cursed sentence by the gods: that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Tormented, Oedipus flees Corinth so that his destiny would not be fulfilled.
On the way to Thebes, Oedipus meets Laius, with whom, not knowing that he was his father and the king of Thebes, have a disagreement, killing him. At the entrance to thebes, Oedipus is faced with the sphinx, a mythological figure with the body of a lion and the head of a woman. The sphinx tormented the population of Thebes by making them riddles, and anyone who did not answer them correctly was killed.
Oedipus correctly answers the riddle: what is the animal that walks on four legs at dawn, at noon, on two legs, and on three legs at dusk? The answer is the man, who crawls as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and with the aid of a cane as an old man. The sphinx kills itself after a human answers its riddle, and Oedipus is considered a hero to the Theban people. no king in the city, Oedipus takes over the position, marrying the queen, Jocasta, that he didn't know how to be his mother.
Horrified by the death of the king of Thebes, Laius, and unaware that he has killed him, the new king, Oedipus, announces that the murderer, if caught, would have his eyes plucked out as a pity. As the tragedy unfolds, Oedipus discovers through a messenger that he had been adopted by Polybus and that he was the son of Laius and Jocasta. He also finds out that the man he killed was the king of Thebes and his father. Tormented, Oedipus plucked out his own eyes and left the city of Thebes, wandering aimlessly until his death. The notion of fatalism is expressed in tragedy, because as much as all the main characters (Oedipus, Laius and Jocasta) tried to escape their fate, they couldn't.
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Types of Determinism
Pre-determinism: Every effect is contained in the cause, that is, the initial actions of the Universe promoted a whole causal chain about everything that will happen. pre-determinism finds echoes in the deist theory of the universe, who understands that he was created by a superior intelligence, that he may or may not be God, and that he is only understood through reason, not through religion. There is also a pre-deterministic element in the psychology behaviorist, which states that the human being's mind is formed by a mechanical system, in which stimuli trigger precise reactions.
See too: Cosmology - study of the origin and composition of the Universe
Post-determinism: In this common conception in the theology and monotheistic religions, there is an event external to human beings—God, and all life is determined not by Him directly, but by a life lived to please Him. A mechanistic system of life determination for something external to the person is created.
Co-determinism: Effects are the result of multiple causes and other effects. The effects of previous causes are related to each other, through connectionsendless. Thus, despite there being determinism, it is impossible to have an exact prediction of the future. This theory finds space in the chaos theory, mathematical theory that predicts the application of errors that result in multiple unpredictable results, and in theoryrhizomatic, developed by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Felix Guattari.
Genetic Determinism: This is not a form of precise determinism, but it is a theory that the genes and the conditionsgenetic of a person determines his life.
Geographical determinism: Theory found, in a subtle way, in the work of the German geographer and anthropologist Friedrich Ratzel says the environment determines the behavior of the people who live there. However, Ratzel stresses that through the use of natural resources and the creation of culture, it is possible to overcome the deterministic effects of the environment.
social determinism: It would be something like the application of geographic determinism in the capitalist social environments of urbanized industrial societies. In this aspect, it is believed that the social environment in which an individual is born determines his life and actions. Individuals born into violent surroundings, for example, would be violent. However, despite the great influence of the environment on people's lives, we can use exceptions to assert that social determination does not have secure causal relationships.
Read too: Naturalism – a literary school that was influenced by social determinism
Determinism and freedom
A long debate carried out by the history of Western thought takes place between the issues of determinism and freedom. In principle, if there is determinism, there is no freedom. This problem has permeated philosophy patristic in Saint Augustine.
On the one hand, the philosopher, theologian and priest Augustine of Hippo he defended the post-determinist dogma of the life lived for God. On the other hand, like the patristic philosopher Boethius, Augustine defended the free will that God has given to human beings to follow his path.
If there is good and evil and the human being is punished when he follows the path of evil, he cannot be preordained to act in this way by God, because, if so, God would be evil and unjust. For Augustine, God gave the possibilities: to go with it (and follow a form of post-determinism), to achieve good, or to move away from it and achieve evil.
Other theorists have solved this problem by modifying the notion of freedom or simply asserting that there is no freedom. for the contemporary German philosopher FriedrichNietzsche, for example, there is no complete freedom. There is the possibility of change through culture, but there is no complete individual freedom, because there is what he called will to power, which is a set of cosmic forces that move nature and life.
for the contemporary French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, freedom is not free choice, but creation. In this sense, there is determinism (co-determinism, in the theory of this philosopher) that does not run into individual freedom, because every individual has the capacity to create.
For the contemporary French philosopher and existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, defender of unconditional freedom as a primordial element of the human being, there cannot be any kind of determinism, because otherwise, there would be no freedom, and the only certainty of the human being is freedom.
Deterministic authors
Friedrich Ratzel: German geographer and anthropologist, he believed that the environment determined people's lives and actions. Despite being one of the greatest names in determinism, this word does not appear in his work.
Friedrich Nietzsche: German philosopher and philologist, he claimed that there was a universal creative force that would move all life. He called this will power power, and it would be the motive and cause of everything.
Charles Darwin: English biologist and creator of species evolution theory, he did not directly mention determinism and did not bother to defend a deterministic position. However his theory says that the survival of a species depends on its ability to adapt to the environment, which denotes a deterministic principle. If there is adaptation, there is survival.
Spinoza's Baruch: for the Dutch philosopher, any action of a human being is not an isolated action. It is the result of previous actions that he himself took, and these actions are the result of other actions, which puts the human being in an endless spiral until his death.
Gilles Deleuze: Inspired by Nietzsche and Spinoza, Deleuze stated that freedom is the ability to create, and the thought that distinguishes humans from other animals is also the result of this ability. The ability to create, however, does not prevent human beings from determining forces in their own actions and those of others, which gives them infinite possibilities for action.
by Francisco Porfirio
Sociology Professor
