The so-called determinism mainly has two main meanings: one meaning is to recognize that any phenomenon and any thing have its own reasons, and any thing and any phenomenon can produce certain results as a cause. This is the law of cause and effect that is often mentioned;

recently conducted a discussion on determinism and non-determinism in the theoretical community. The so-called determinism mainly has two meanings: one means to recognize that any phenomenon and any thing has its own reasons, and any thing and any phenomenon can produce certain results as a cause. This is the often talked about law of causality and effect ; the other means to further explore the regularity, and there are various causes and various results in causes and results.

causes include long-term, short-term, overall, local, major, secondary, inevitable, accidental, etc. We mainly need to explore the long-term, overall, main and inevitable reasons. If we find this reason, we will find regularity.

Generally speaking, determinism is the materialistic idea, which admits that the occurrence of objective things is not for no reason, and that there is something inevitable and regular. Some people also talk about determinism based on idealism , such as Hegel . So there can also be the determinism of idealism .

The determinism of mechanical materialism recognizes causality and regularity, but denies contingency. In the eyes of mechanical materialists, everything is prescribed in advance, so it must happen like this now. As long as you can grasp some necessary links in the occurrence of things under certain conditions, you can infer what it will be like in the future, that is, the occurrence of all things is determined before.

This is to generalize the formula of mechanics to the whole world. As long as you know where the object is, how big the momentum is, and what direction is, you can know where it is in the next second and where it is in 10 seconds. Just like the movement of celestial bodies, we can all calculate when the solar eclipse will be, when the solar eclipse will be, that is, when the earth, the moon and the sun become a straight line, which can be calculated accurately. Mechanical Determinism believes that all kinds of phenomena occur in the entire universe are like this, which exaggerates mechanics.

This world is not a mechanical world, it is not all mechanical movement, but very complex. It also has chemical, biological, and human society movements. Even mechanical movements are divided into macroscopic and microscopic worlds, and mechanical movements cannot get rid of accidents and deviations, and calculations cannot be absolutely accurate. Therefore, mechanical determinism is one-sided.

is opposite to mechanical determinism. Dialectical determinism recognizes contingency, recognizes opportunities, and recognizes contingency affects the development process of things, especially in human society. In human society, the subjects of practice and cognition play a great role, and the subjective motivations are all kinds. I like this, you like that, I act like this, you act like that.

As for a person, it is difficult to say how you act when you must act. Here accidental, subjective consciousness and thought play a big role. Dialectical materialism Determinism does not reject accidentality or opportunities, so Engels said: "Inevitability opens the way through accidentality." In this case, this law is either realized, or not, while another law is realized. Not everything is pre-determined.

For example, seeds will germinate when they are scattered in the ground. According to the regularity, they should germinate 100%. Because according to the rules, seeds will germinate when encountering certain conditions. But everyone knows that it will not sprout 100%. So, is this denying this regularity? Of course not, because there are many accidental situations here that prevent the seeds from germination. Some seeds may be eaten by insects, and some seeds are just sprinkled on the stone and cannot absorb water. In this way, the implementation of the law will deviate. Dialectical materialist determinism is not fatalism, nor is it mechanical determinism.

In addition to determinism, there is another view in the history of philosophy and even today, called non-determinism, that is, not acknowledging causality, especially not acknowledging necessity and regularity, or denying that regularity is objective, believing that everything is determined by accidental factors, especially in human society, where there is no law at all.

Social history is composed of everyone's activities, and everyone's activities are determined by their motivations. People's motivations vary greatly. What are the rules? The history of human society is nothing more than a accumulation of various facts and phenomena. This kind of thinking is called non-determinism. Indeterminism is generally idealistic, because the so-called non-determinism is not a real non-determinism, because it also admits that there are always certain reasons for things to happen, but this reason is subjective, accidental, and even arranged by God.

Indeterminism is actually accidental determinism and subjective determinism. This view inevitably leads to idealism, or rather idealism. Recently, what everyone has debated a lot about whether determinism is applicable to human society, and this issue also involves quantum mechanics . In the eyes of some people, determinism does not work for the microscopic world. There is no law to follow in the microscopic world. In the past, some people even proposed the free electron theory, believing that electrons have free will and have no necessity or regularity. This is an indeterministic view of the microscopic world.

The issue of regularity has also been discussed a lot in recent years. Many people mentioned that a new concept should be introduced, and that the law cannot be understood only as inevitable, and there is also a statistical law. The main difference between the inevitable law and the statistical law is: if the conditions are met, the inevitable law will be realized 100% on the individual, while the statistical law may not be realized on the individual. Only when the individual accumulates a large number can a certain degree of regularity derived from statistics be seen.

The law of quantum mechanics is a statistical law. It is not necessarily applicable to a single microscopic particle, but is manifested in a large number of microscopic particles. Not only are the laws of microscopic particles statistical laws, but the macroscopic world also has statistical laws.

The probability we often talk about is a statistical law. For example, if you throw a copper coin once, it is hard to say whether it appears on the front or on the back. However, if you throw it more often, you will find that the front and back sides are close to 50%. The more the number, the closer each is to 50%. This is similar to having a boy or a girl. It is hard to say whether a boy or a girl is born, but for many people, the proportion of boys and girls is closer to 50%. For example, when rolling dice, dice is 6 sides, the chance of appearing on each side is 1/6, and the number of times it is thrown is less. Some sides may appear a little more, and some sides may appear a little less. The more they are thrown, the closer the chance of appearing on each side is 1/6.

But in the macro world, statistical laws are often the situation when the law has not yet appeared, and are not the real statistical laws. For example, in a certain area, the incidence of esophageal cancer is very high. Therefore, research and statistics were conducted and found that patients with esophageal cancer have the habit of eating sauerkraut. This gives a number of people who eat sauerkraut have cancer. Therefore, we concluded that eating sauerkraut is a cause of esophageal cancer.

This is just a statistical result that has not been found for the real cause of esophageal cancer. When we figure out the real cause of esophageal cancer, it becomes a regular one, that is, we figure out that the esophageal cancer is caused by eating sauerkraut with aflatoxin . Of course, taking Aspergillus aflatoxin may not necessarily cause cancer. There are some accidental factors, as well as the internal resistance and strength of .

Therefore, statistical laws may be the forerunner of discovering the law of inevitability, but the examples mentioned above such as rolling dice and throwing copper coins cannot be the forerunner of discovering the law of inevitability, they are the real statistical laws. Let me repeat it here. It is incorrect for each individual, but overall, it has a certain trend, which is its regularity.

This situation also occurs in human society. As for everyone, people’s thoughts, consciousness, and motivations vary greatly. They have everything. It is difficult to say what kind of family they are from, and they must have any thoughts. But overall, there are still regularities to follow.

Engels once said that the activities of human society are driven by various motivations, but various motivations will eventually form a certain synergy. Joining forces is a common trend. Some motivations are offset, and some motivations are involved, forming a common trend.What forms this common trend? The materialistic view of history reveals that people's economic relations and economic life play a major role. The materialistic view of history does not negate the role of subjective motivation in the historical development of human society, but it is certain that there are still certain objective laws in this motivation.

For example, when it comes to buying and selling activities, there is no certainty in each trading activity. The selling price may be more reasonable, may be very high, or very low, but for a large number of activities, no matter whether the price is high or low, it always fluctuates up and down around the value of the commodity. This is the value law mentioned by Marx. In each of us’s conscious trading behaviors, there is always an objective thing that restricts and controls it.

Therefore, the idea of ​​determinism is completely applicable to the field of human society, which is the materialist view of history. This view does not regard human society as the mechanical movement of macroscopic objects, and will never deny the role of the subject. However, among these various motivations and activities, there is always a certain law to follow, and finding such law is the work of materialist historical view.

Recently, there is a view that for human social history, determinism and indetermination are both one-sided, advocating transcendence of determinism and indetermination, which is called historical choice theory. This view is not valid. This actually advocates that materialism and idealism should be transcended in the field of social history, and that materialism is one-sided and idealism is also one-sided. Is there any historical choice for

? Of course there is. But who will choose history and why do you choose this way? Is there no objective law here? Is it purely subjective decision? These issues deserve further study. For example, we chose the socialist path. Is this just a few people from the Communist Party? Why did the path chosen by Chiang Kai-shek fail to follow, but the path chosen by the Communist Party is successful? Is there no rules to follow here?

At the critical moment of history, everyone is choosing. You choose this path, I choose that path, but in the end, a joint force (trend) is formed. Everyone chooses socialist , and this path will be completed. Although some people object, these opposition forces are offset, no longer effective, or have a very small effect. Is this choice not profoundly based on its choice in Chinese society? The materialistic view of history is completely applicable to analyzing China's problems. This view of opposing historical selection theory and decision is obviously one-sided.