Abstract
The clockwork universe is an image developed by the mechanistic worldview, which arose as a result of the Scientific Revolution (1543–1687). The mechanical worldview is a philosophical view, which claims that all events in the universe can ultimately be reduced to mechanical principles: all events can be explained in terms of matter and motion, under the rule of physical laws. Similar to a clockwork, all events, whether past, present or future must be completely determined. What does it mean that all events are completely determined? There are several versions of determinism.
If the whole prior state of the universe could occur again, it would again be followed by the present state.
Mill, A System of Logic (1843: Bk. III, Chap. VII, §1)
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Notes
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Popper’s argument is similar to his ‘unplanned planning’ argument against directed economies or societies: even if all future states are perfectly planned, contingencies will arise, which require new unexpected plans. Of course the new, modified plan, will also run into problems of unplanned planning. These new ‘unplanned plans’ will interfere strongly with the previous plans and destroy their predictive value (Popper 1957: Chap. 21).
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Weinert, F. (2016). Laplace’s Demon: Causal and Predictive Determinism. In: The Demons of Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31708-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31708-3_8
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