Is the Physical World Really Mechanical?

Abstract

Besides the principle of sufficient reason there is another powerful argument in favor of determinism, an argument which may be more powerful psychologically, if not logically, than the argument from sufficient reason. And this second argument stems from the fact that the physical world, in its broad outlines, is regular and determined. On any scale relevant to human life and action, the physical world seems to be completely bound by its nature and constitution. Newtonian physics, in particular, painted a picture of the world as a giant machine, with its gears grinding along in a manner determined by the laws of its construction. In a word, matter behaves mechanically, and our bodies and brains are made of matter. This is in many ways the heart of the determinist’s position.