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the rule of fixed necessity

English translation: natural causal determinism (without randomness or divine intervention)

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:the rule of fixed necessity
Selected answer:natural causal determinism (without randomness or divine intervention)
Entered by: Charles Davis

17:30 May 3, 2015
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Science - Philosophy / science and religion
English term or phrase: the rule of fixed necessity
'We have penetrated far less deeply into the regularities obtaining within the realm of living things, but deeply enough nevertheless to sense at least ** the rule of fixed necessity **. One need only think of the systematic order in heredity, and in the effect of poisons, as for instance alcohol, on the behavior of organic beings. What is still lacking here is a grasp of connections of profound generality, but not a knowledge of order in itself.'

(Albert Einstein, 'Science and Religion', in 'Ideas and Opinions')

The overall meaning of this paragraph is quite clear: science has established that living things are also subject to laws that are amenable to scientific investigation although an understanding at the deepest level is still missing. But what does he mean by 'the law of fixed necessity'? I have seen some comment which suggests that this is a reference to the law of cause and effect but I am not sure.

The way Einstein has used this phrase suggests to me that it is a standard phrase and he expects the reader to know precisely what it means. Yet, the only other place where I have found it is a play by Lord Byron, where the meaning, I think, is quite clear: all living things must die. This, however, is not what Einstein means.

Has Einstein's translated a well known German phrase? I believe the essay itself was originally written in English and was not translated from German.

( ...From the star
To the winding worm, all life is motion; and
In life commotion is the extremest point
Of life. The planet wheels till it becomes
A comet, and destroying as it sweeps
The stars, goes out. The poor worm winds its way,
Living upon the death of other things,
But still, like them, must live and die, the subject
Of something which has made it live and die.
You must obey what all obey, **the rule
Of fixed Necessity**: against her edict
Rebellion prospers not.

Lord Byron, 'The Deformed Transformed')
Piyush Ojha
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:19
natural causal determinism (without randomness or divine intervention)
Explanation:
I think the comment you have found is broadly correct, and that by "the rule of fixed necessity" Einstein means, essentially, causal determinism: the idea that "every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature"
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/

I don't think this is exactly a standard phrase; it simply means a system governed ("rule") by necessity that is fixed in the sense that the laws that necessarily lead from certain conditions to certain results do not change and always apply. Einstein is claiming that biological systems are of this kind.

I think it is helpful to read this paragraph in the context of those that precede and follow it in Einstein's essay. "It is the aim of science to establish general rules which determine the reciprocal connection of objects and events in time and space", he writes. He claims that such rules have been found, and that they enable us to "predict the temporal behavior of phenomena in certain domains with great precision and certainty". An example is the movements of the planets.

He goes on to refer to more complex systems, such as the weather. Here we cannot predict the behaviour of the system precisely, but not (in his view) because of the system does not obey fixed laws, causal connections, but simply because there are too many factors involved for us to calculate them.

He moves on the the paragraph you have quoted, about biological systems, and then comments that when people are convinced of this "ordered regularity" they are not willing to admit "causes of a different nature": divine will as an "independent cause of natural events".

So the "rule of fixed necessity" refers to the idea that in biology, as in physics, certain events necessarily follow from certain causes by the operation of fixed laws. We can't predict these events perfectly because we don't know all the connections, not because of "any lack of order in nature". He is convinced that there are no special causes, no random events, no divine intervention in the natural world.

Einstein published this essay in the New York Times in 1930.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm
Although he is not writing here about quantum mechanics, it seems certain to me that what he is saying is informed by recent events in physics. As is well known, Einstein was dismayed by Heisenberg's famous "uncertainty principle" in 1925, followed by Max Born's proposal in 1926 that mechanics were governed by probability and inaccessible to causal explanation. It was this that led to Einstein's famous comment (in a letter to Born in 1926) that "God does not play dice".

So Einstein remained deeply wedded to determinism in the face of developments that seemed to be undermining it, and I think this lies behind what he wrote here in 1930.
Selected response from:

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 17:19
Grading comment
Thanks, Charles. It was most helpful.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +3natural causal determinism (without randomness or divine intervention)
Charles Davis


Discussion entries: 3





  

Answers


3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
natural causal determinism (without randomness or divine intervention)


Explanation:
I think the comment you have found is broadly correct, and that by "the rule of fixed necessity" Einstein means, essentially, causal determinism: the idea that "every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature"
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/

I don't think this is exactly a standard phrase; it simply means a system governed ("rule") by necessity that is fixed in the sense that the laws that necessarily lead from certain conditions to certain results do not change and always apply. Einstein is claiming that biological systems are of this kind.

I think it is helpful to read this paragraph in the context of those that precede and follow it in Einstein's essay. "It is the aim of science to establish general rules which determine the reciprocal connection of objects and events in time and space", he writes. He claims that such rules have been found, and that they enable us to "predict the temporal behavior of phenomena in certain domains with great precision and certainty". An example is the movements of the planets.

He goes on to refer to more complex systems, such as the weather. Here we cannot predict the behaviour of the system precisely, but not (in his view) because of the system does not obey fixed laws, causal connections, but simply because there are too many factors involved for us to calculate them.

He moves on the the paragraph you have quoted, about biological systems, and then comments that when people are convinced of this "ordered regularity" they are not willing to admit "causes of a different nature": divine will as an "independent cause of natural events".

So the "rule of fixed necessity" refers to the idea that in biology, as in physics, certain events necessarily follow from certain causes by the operation of fixed laws. We can't predict these events perfectly because we don't know all the connections, not because of "any lack of order in nature". He is convinced that there are no special causes, no random events, no divine intervention in the natural world.

Einstein published this essay in the New York Times in 1930.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm
Although he is not writing here about quantum mechanics, it seems certain to me that what he is saying is informed by recent events in physics. As is well known, Einstein was dismayed by Heisenberg's famous "uncertainty principle" in 1925, followed by Max Born's proposal in 1926 that mechanics were governed by probability and inaccessible to causal explanation. It was this that led to Einstein's famous comment (in a letter to Born in 1926) that "God does not play dice".

So Einstein remained deeply wedded to determinism in the face of developments that seemed to be undermining it, and I think this lies behind what he wrote here in 1930.

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 17:19
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 16
Grading comment
Thanks, Charles. It was most helpful.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  DLyons
2 hrs
  -> Thanks, Donal :)
agree  Yvonne Gallagher: Yes, this is how I've always understood the phrase
2 hrs
  -> Many thanks :)
agree  Veronika McLaren
2 days 21 hrs
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