THE PRINCIPLE OF INDETERMINISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23516, 2 June 1938, Page 9

THE PRINCIPLE OF INDETERMINISM

TO THE BOITOIt Sir, —One can see that “Profanum Tulgus” is worried in his philosophy. The “worm i’ the bud” is the scientific principle of indeterminism. The iomnolent causationists of the nineteenth century and those philosophers still conforming to the cobwebbed shibboleths of distant days have had their complacency shattered by the truth of indeterminism. To the impact of this truth “ Profanum Vulgus ” reacts, as does the punch-drunk pugilist when he foresakes his fistic art and lashes out unintelligently at his more skilful opponent. Acknowledging himself as no physicist, he, with the temerity of the uninformed, attacks eminent physicists in their special domain of scientific knowledge find experience. If he has mental Virtue he will support his manifestly Splenetic attacks on such eminent scientists as Jeans, Eddington and Husenberg by specific proof. He dubs as “ soft-headed scientists ” these distinguished men, who confront the hard-headed materialists with a truth Which probes unerringly to the core of their antiquated philosophy. The thinking public challenges “Profanum Vulgus ’ to establish his charges or withdraw them, with apologies to your readers for insulting their intelligence and for slandering the reputations of those whose repute and scientific ability immunise them from the hornet stings of our local “ diatribetician.” Butchers sell a commodity which metaphorically may be fittingly placed in juxtaposition to your correspondent’s statement that Eddington, Milne Dirac, etc., devise laws and principles without regard to observation and experience. This is so untrue that I venture to set out the principle of interdeterminism, which, as Jeans states, is the most complete exposition of the new theory. Dirac records: “ When an observation is made on any atomic system that has been prepared in a given way, and is thus in a given state, the result will not in general be determinate —i.e., if the experiment is repeated several times under identical conditions, several different results may be obtained. If the experiment is repeated a large number of times it wfll be found that each particular result will be obtained a definite fraction of the total number of times, so that one can say there is a definite probability of its being obtained any time the experiment is performed.” The theory is thus based upon experiment; precisely the reverse of “Profanum Vulgus’s” ill-considered contention. —I sm, etc. Hauteclere. Dunedin, June 1.