Editing Determinism (section)

===Western tradition===
In the West, some elements of determinism have been expressed in Greece from the 6th century BCE by the [[Pre-Socratic philosophy|Presocratics]] [[Heraclitus]]<ref>Stobaeus ''Eclogae'' I 5 ([[Heraclitus]])</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2025}} and [[Leucippus]].<ref>Stobaeus ''Eclogae'' I 4 ([[Leucippus]])</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2025}} The first notions of determinism appears to originate with the [[Stoicism|Stoics]], as part of their theory of universal causal determinism.<ref>[[Susanne Bobzien]] ''Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy'' (Oxford 1998) chapter 1.</ref> The resulting philosophical debates, which involved the confluence of elements of Aristotelian Ethics with Stoic psychology, led in the 1st–3rd centuries CE in the works of [[Alexander of Aphrodisias]] to the first recorded Western debate over determinism and freedom,<ref>Susanne Bobzien ''The Inadvertent Conception and Late Birth of the Free-Will Problem'' (Phronesis 43, 1998).</ref> an issue that is known in theology as the [[Argument from free will|paradox of free will]]. The writings of [[Epictetus]] as well as [[Middle Platonism|middle Platonist]] and early Christian thought were instrumental in this development.<ref>[[Michael Frede]] ''A Free Will: Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought'' (Berkeley 2011).</ref> Jewish philosopher [[Maimonides|Moses Maimonides]] said of the deterministic implications of an omniscient god:<ref>Though Moses Maimonides was not arguing against the existence of God, but rather for the incompatibility between the full ''exercise'' by God of his [[omniscience]] and genuine human [[free will]], his argument is considered by some as affected by modal fallacy.</ref> "Does God know or does He not know that a certain individual will be good or bad? If thou sayest 'He knows', then it necessarily follows that [that] man is compelled to act as God knew beforehand he would act, otherwise God's knowledge would be imperfect."<ref name="maimonides">''The Eight Chapters of Maimonides on Ethics (Semonah Perakhim)'', edited, annotated, and translated with an Introduction by Joseph I. Gorfinkle, pp. 99–100. (New York: AMS Press), 1966.</ref>

==== Newtonian mechanics ====
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Determinism in the West is often associated with [[Classical mechanics|Newtonian mechanics/physics]], which depicts the physical matter of the universe as operating according to a set of fixed laws. The "billiard ball" hypothesis, a product of Newtonian physics, argues that once the initial conditions of the universe have been established, the rest of the history of the universe follows inevitably. If it were actually possible to have complete knowledge of physical matter and all of the laws governing that matter at any one time, then it would be theoretically possible to compute the time and place of every event that will ever occur (''[[Laplace's demon]]''). In this sense, the basic particles of the universe operate in the same fashion as the rolling balls on a billiard table, moving and striking each other in predictable ways to produce predictable results.

Whether or not it is all-encompassing in so doing, Newtonian mechanics deals only with caused events; for example, if an object begins in a known position and is hit dead on by an object with some known velocity, then it will be pushed straight toward another predictable point. If it goes somewhere else, the Newtonians argue, one must question one's measurements of the original position of the object, the exact direction of the striking object, gravitational or other fields that were inadvertently ignored, etc. Then, they maintain, repeated experiments and improvements in accuracy will always bring one's observations closer to the theoretically predicted results. When dealing with situations on an ordinary human scale, Newtonian physics has been successful. But it fails as velocities become some substantial fraction of the [[speed of light]] and when interactions at the atomic scale are studied. Before the discovery of [[Introduction to quantum mechanics|quantum]] effects and other challenges to Newtonian physics, "uncertainty" was always a term that applied to the accuracy of human knowledge about causes and effects, and not to the causes and effects themselves.

Newtonian mechanics, as well as any following physical theories, are results of observations and experiments, and so they describe "how it all works" within a tolerance. However, old western scientists believed if there are any logical connections found between an observed cause and effect, there must be also some absolute natural laws behind. Belief in perfect natural laws driving everything, instead of just describing what we should expect, led to searching for a set of universal simple laws that rule the world. This movement significantly encouraged deterministic views in Western philosophy,<ref>Swartz, Norman (2003) ''The Concept of Physical Law''. Chapter 10: "Free Will and Determinism" https://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/physical-law/</ref> as well as the related theological views of [[classical pantheism]].