Determinism and the Study of Man

Abstract

By determinism I shall understand ideas according to which that which is also (somehow) had to be. Such ideas play an important role both in the natural and in the human sciences. Whatever the ultimate answer may be to the question as to how these two types of sciences are related, the following difference between them is striking on the surface: In the natural sciences, deterministic ideas are connected with such other ideas as those of universal regularity, repeatability, and experimental control. In the human sciences the immediate connections are with ideas such as motivation and social pressure, goal-directedness and intention- ality. In the natural sciences determinism serves in a large measure the forward looking aims of prediction; in the human sciences there is a relatively much stronger emphasis on retrospective explanation, or understanding, of what is already a, fait accompli.