Title: Causal Determinism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Headings: Causal Determinism
Causal Determinism
1. Introduction
2. Conceptual Issues in Determinism
2.1 The World
2.2 The way things are at a time t
2.3 Thereafter
2.4 Laws of nature
2.5 Fixed
3. The Epistemology of Determinism
3.1 Laws again
3.2 Experience
3.3 Determinism and Chaos
3.4 Metaphysical arguments
4. The Status of Determinism in Physical Theories
4.1 Classical mechanics
4.2 Special Relativistic physics
4.3 General Relativity (GTR)
4.3.1 Determinism and manifold points
4.3.2 Singularities
4.4 Quantum mechanics
5. Chance and Determinism
6. Determinism and Human Action
Bibliography
Academic Tools
Other Internet Resources
Acknowledgments

Content: Causal Determinism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Causal Determinism
First published Thu Jan 23, 2003; substantive revision Thu Jan 21, 2016
Causal determinism is, roughly speaking, the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature. The idea is ancient, but first became subject to clarification and mathematical analysis in the eighteenth century. Determinism is deeply connected with our understanding of the physical sciences and their explanatory ambitions, on the one hand, and with our views about human free action on the other. In both of these general areas there is no agreement over whether determinism is true  (or even whether it can be known true or false), and what the import for human agency would be in either case. 1. Introduction
2. Conceptual Issues in Determinism
2.1 The World
2.2 The way things are at a time t
2.3 Thereafter
2.4 Laws of nature
2.5 Fixed
3. The Epistemology of Determinism
3.1 Laws again
3.2 Experience
3.3 Determinism and Chaos
3.4 Metaphysical arguments
4. The Status of Determinism in Physical Theories
4.1 Classical mechanics
4.2 Special Relativistic physics
4.3 General Relativity (GTR)
4.4 Quantum mechanics
5.