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LaPlace & Freud

It is noteworthy that LaPlace, inspired by Newtonian physics, got rid of both divine Providence and human freedom. Something similar can be said about Freud: he considered belief in a provident God a delusion, and regarded human freedom more or less in the same way.

So divine freedom (as manifest in divine Providence) and human freedom go (and come) together: this is worth investigating more.
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Tim D said…
I heard somewhere that images of "what the universe really is" copy the technology of their contemporary historical periods. In Newton's time, everything was a machine, with gears, levers, etc. In the nineteenth century, everything was a steam engine. Now, everything is supposed to be a computer. Like when RD says "We and all other animals are machines." It's a very sixteenth century mindset, from the perspective of a more mature science such as physics.
11:06 PM
Leo White said…
Good point, Tim. Maybe he isn't good with computers.
5:18 PM
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continuing the discussion with Tim in a new post

Hi Tim, I am posting my reply here, because the great blogmeister won't let me put it all in a comment. Me thinks I get your point: is it that we can name and chimps can't, so therefore we are of greater value than chimps? Naming is something above and beyond what a chimp can do, right? In other words, you are illustrating the point I am making (if I catch your drift). My argument is only a sketch, but I think adding the ability to name names, as it were, is still not enough to make the argument seem cogent. For one can still ask why we prefer being able to name over other skills had by animals but not by humans. The objector would demand a more convincing reason. The answer I have in mind is, to put it briefly, that there is something infinite about human beings in comparison with the subhuman. That "something" has to do with our ability to think of the meaning of the cosmos. Whereas one might say"He's got the whole world in His han...
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