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Determinism and indeterminism in
Anekanta Philosophy.
(S C. Jain, M. A., Ph D.)
The theories of determinism and indeterminism have been attracting the attention of almost all the thinkers on the problems of philosophy. In spite of their being so old they have not lost their bewildering nature, and have been taking newer turns with the advance of time By determinism we generally mean that all the events in the world-process are absolutely determined Regarding the determining factors of an event the answer takes three shapes First, the events in the world process are determined by their substantial causes , secondly, they are determined by their helping causes and thirdly, they are the joint effects of their substantial and helping causes So the general belief is that there is perfect determinism in the world on the other hand there are thinker who do not like to uphold such a theory of determinism According to them this type of determinism is extremely fatal to the ethical concept of moral accountability If an agent is not free to choose and act, his actions cannot be made subject to moral judgment and he cannot be held res. ponsible for them If the life-history of jiva is totally determi ed, then it 18 no use preaching him principles of Ethics and Religion as the events will turn as they are ordained to turn So in the sphere of morality freedom of will has been admitted by some as a foundational concept Not only ethically but also metaphysically indeterminism comes out to be a fundamental aspect as reality
On analysis determinism turns out to be a theory of causation 'Causality is a relation of determination' To say that there is determinism in the world 1. S. Mookerjee . Jaina Philosophy of Non-absolutism, p 212
