Page "Philosophy of physics" Paragraph 18

The 18th century saw many advances in the domain of science.

After Newton, most scientists agreed on the presupposition that the universe is governed by strict natural laws that can be discovered and formalized by means of scientific observation and experiment.

This position is known as determinism.

However, determinism seems to preclude the possibility of free will.

That is, if the universe, and thus any person in it, is governed by strict and universal laws, then that means that a person's behavior could be predicted based on sufficient knowledge of the circumstances that obtained prior to that person's behavior.

This appears to contradict the person's perception of free will, except as interpreted in compatibilism.

Conversely, if we accept that human beings do have ( libertarian or incompatibilist ) free will, then we must accept that the world is not entirely governed by natural law.

Some have argued that if the world is not entirely governed by natural law, then the task of science is rendered impossible.

However, the development of quantum mechanics gave thinkers alternatives to these strictly bound possibilities, proposing a model for a universe that follows general rules but never had a predetermined future.