Philosophical Analysis of the Concept of Determinism in Physics

As an ongoing concept in contemporary physics, determinism has embraced many changes during the history of physics; today it is one of the living issues of contemporary physics. Some scholars have deemed its removal as the main grounds for the development of classical physics into the modern one. There are several misunderstandings and scientific problems about this concept. Sound understanding and a precise philosophical analysis of the term can eliminate some of those problems particularly in physics. Accordingly, we follow up the literal and technical meanings and different kinds of determinism and then the course of its development both in science and Western philosophy. We thus come to know that determinism in classical physics and the “Laplacian definition” has assumed a perfect and global face; however, in quantum physics it proved to be a hard nut to crack. We have suggested a new framework for the concept of determinism thus providing a new approach to determinism out of its proposed conceptual implications. In the end, the authors try to clear up the incurred problem. They hold that they cannot get rid of the consequences of determinism thus it might not be eliminated from science, altogether. In the long run, Quantum mechanics goes to deny the perfect and global determinism, but might fall in some “imperfect local and statistical determinism”.