Determinism and Free Will: New Insights from Physics, Philosophy, and Theology

by Fabio Scardigli, Gerard 't Hooft, Emanuele Severino

In this small book, theoretical physicist Gerard 't Hooft (Nobel prize 1999), philosopher Emanuele Severino (Lincei Academician), and theologian Piero Coda (Pontifical Lateran University) confront one another on a topic that lies at the roots of quantum mechanics and at the origin of Western Determinism and Free Will. "God does not play dice" said Einstein, a tenacious determinist. Quantum Mechanics and its clash with General Relativity have reanimated ancient dilemmas about chance and Is Nature deterministic? Is Man free? The “free-will theorem” by Conway and Kochen, and the deterministic interpretation of quantum mechanics proposed by 't Hooft, revive such philosophical questions in modern Physics. Is Becoming real? Is the Elementary Event a product of the Case? The cyclopean clash between Heraclitus and Parmenides has entered a new episode, as evidenced by the essays in this volume.

Genres: Philosophy

130 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 22, 2019

Reviews

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Essay 1: 8/10. Interesting take on how physical laws are generated.
Essay 2: 2.5/10. Mostly incomprehensible High Continentalism.
Essay 3: 5/10. Reads like a combination of Barth and Zizioulas, with the libarbitrism of Zizioulas and the impenetrability of Barth.

If you're not steeped in High Continental leftist critical 'theory' and its kin like the above reviewer (Adeel), the second essay will be incomprehensible. I think by and large it's just plain incoherent, and is a great apologia for the project of analytic philosophy. If you're not familiar with Barth and the continental-esque tradition of 20th century theology, the third essay will likewise remain unheard and unknown, while serving in turn as an apologia for Thomism, scholasticism, and modern analytic theology.

[Adeel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this for the section on free-will and determinism by Emanuele Severino, absolutely worth it, it provides a rigorous justification of his view on the eternity of entities, attacking free-will and determinism as non-scientific terms and the notion that entities oscillate between being and non-being. Severino also notes how Einstein was a Parmenidean in his letters to Karl Popper, that being and non-being is an illusion, however, Severino distinguishes his position here, he does not simply believe that what appears or does not appear is illusory. He offers an account for the compatibility of the eternity of entities with Einstein's theory of relativity.

This book is fundamental to understanding Severino, with the lack of material in English and the very obtuse nature of Severino's Essence of nihilism.

"Also because science nowadays—including the theory of relativity—recognizes the hypothetical and provisional character of its own
theses, even the most “confirmed” ones. And it is in this
sense that philosophy in its essence can go beyond science
(which, on the other hand, is now concerned about power,
not about “truth”). The fact remains, however, that the
Parmenidean thesis of the theory of relativity sounds identical to the thesis of my writings, that every being is eternal—even if the foundations of the two theses are radically
different, so that the theses themselves are different"

[Tero W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure if I should hive this one star or five stars. Interesting studf amd in-depth discussions, but requires from the reader pretty deep previous understanding of physics, philosophy and theology. I just about managed but probably more explicit plain-language explanation chapter would serve the book well.