Pierre Laplace's Universal Determinism

Universal determinism is the thesis that every event is fully determined by an event or several events that proceeded it. It was Pierre Laplace who pointed out that the present state of the universe is the effect of its preceded state (Litch 121). It is the past that creates the present and it is the present that determines the future. Everything is what is now because it was determined by something in the past. According to Mary Litch, “Events in the past are determined and fixed: we may regret that something happened, be angry that it happened, or prefer that it hadn’t happened, but we cannot choose that it did not happen” (Litch 122). The past is set in stone it is the future that is in constant flux as it is determined by the effect of the present. Under normal circumstances the previous statement would be absolute. However, what if there was a way to make the past the present and the present the future. What if there was a way to go back to the past and alter the events that were meant to proceed the …show more content…
This is seen when Marty decides to talk to his dad’s younger self. There didn’t seem to be any need for Marty to pursue his father and it didn’t appear that a preceded event had forced him to interact with him so Marty’s actions were his own choice. Encountering his father in the past was a determined event but his interaction with him was a deliberate decision. This idea that determined actions and free will are compatible with each other is known as compatibilism. Compatibilism states that decisions and actions may be determined by one 's beliefs and desires (Litch 129). Going back to the scene, it was Marty’s desire to talk to his father after his determined encounter that drove him to act. He had the option not to talk to his father and yet he still did, this implies