Indeterministic tense logic

Abstract

It is sometimes argued that classical physics establishes a convincing case for determinism, and against human freedom of choice. In its simplest — and original — form, this argument is based on the assumption that all the individual elements of the human brain and body interact according to Newtonian mechanics. This was clearly the assumption in the famous argument for the idea of L’Homme-Machine, ‘The Man Machine’, by La Mettrie (1709–51). According to John Cohen, La Mettrie “seems to have been the first to state the problem of the mind in terms of physics” [Cohen 1966, p. 70]. In fact, there was also a clearly temporal aspect to La Mettrie’s idea:

La Mettrie was no doubt encouraged to make his grand extrapolation by the ingenious successes of contemporary horologists. [Cohen 1966, p. 70]