The Socjournal A new media journal of sociology and society

Are we all but hapless pawns of Fate, or can humans exert some measure of creative control over the course of their lives? Beginning with Laplace, hard determinists have claimed that they can literally explain every event that has ever ...

A surprising number of people believe that the universe is deterministic (Hawking, 2007; Kurzweil, 2005; Skinner, 1971—among many others). Determinists believe that humans don’t have any control over their lives, or the world around them. Further, determinists reject the idea that humans ...

Einstein’s oft-repeated, and dogged insistence that “God does not play dice” is scientifically wrong-headed for a number of reasons. First of all, where science is concerned, God is irrelevant. Any references to God’s presumptive influence on the design of the ...

​Fate is the most potent weapon in the arsenal of hard determinists. To contend, as hard determinists plainly do, that the outcomes of events are predetermined is essentially the same as saying that the ebbs and flows of history are ...

If the messages embedded in folklore mean anything, then until very recently humans were terrified of the natural environment. In many cases, the scariest part of folk tales involves foolish individuals–often kids, in order to emphasize the cautionary nature of ...

One can hardly broach the subject of free will or human agency without acknowledging the long-standing and unresolved philosophical debate regarding agency vs. determinism (Campbell, et. al., 2004). To provide an illustration of the extent of disagreement over this dualism, ...

There is a crucial distinction between explanatory systems that are based upon fate vs. prediction. Both perspectives purport to shed light upon the course of future events, however, fate is based upon a faith in metaphysics whereas prediction is scientific. ...

Fate is the most potent weapon in a the arsenal of determinists like Stephen Hawking. To contend, as determinists plainly do, that the outcomes of events are pre-determined is essentially the same as saying that the ebbs and flows of ...

One can hardly broach the subject of agency without acknowledging the long-standing and unresolved philosophical debate regarding the agency vs. determination dichotomy. To provide an illustration of the extent of disagreement over this dualism, determinists, such as Stephen Hawking have ...