Thursday, May 25, 2017

Dice-Playing, Determinism, Knowledge

Einstein's rejection of a dice-playing God is generally accepted as reflecting the Determinism of Modern Physics.  However, regardless of whether or not that position is defensible, it is rarely noticed that the rejection misses its intended target.  For, according to that target, the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, some results cannot be calculated with certainty, but only predicted with probability.  So, what that thesis challenges is not necessarily Determinism, but, rather, the capacity of Physicists to attain complete knowledge of their object.  In otherIn words, Einstein's transformation of a criticism of a human endeavor, to a purported demeaning of a deity, is more reminiscent of Theological Dogmatism than of the pioneering of Modern Physics in which heterodoxy was dangerous, even mortally so.

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