Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

a suggestion — under the older interpretations of quantum theory — that it is our observations, as conscious subjects, that cause probabilities to collapse into actualities — such as, actual positions of particles. So the very act of observing may have an effect on the material world. Quantum theory at least suggests that the universe is not deterministic, although it does not prove this to be the case, beyond all doubt. So, if we were hoping quantum theory could get us out of the fix that determinism places us under, then think again!

There’s a further variation. Liberty, according to Rousseau, is acting in accordance with a law that we make for ourselves. Hence, we must decide who we are in order to act freely. But who we are — it might be argued — is necessarily determined by our genes and our upbringing (nature and nurture). So it is difficult for us to change. We end up with an infinite regress of trying to change ourselves in order to make choices, but unable to change ourselves because who we are is itself determined. But these things — in turn — relate back to a purely physical determinism. So it’s still matter, and the flows of information moving around physical arrangements, that determine everything that happens.

A third option is that we are somehow granted our free choice by God and as a result perhaps of having a soul (in the mysterian sense) that is free to choose, even although the surrounding world of ordinary matter may still be strictly determined. So it is soul (or God’s spirit) or some such that provides us with agency.

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