Self-study
Physicist: Determinism is the view that every event has a preceding cause sufficient for its occurrence. ████ ███ ██ ███████████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ █████████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █ ██████ ████ ████████████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ █ ██████████ █████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The physicist concludes that determinism (the view that every event is guaranteed by the state of the universe immediately before) is false. This is supported by the fact that it’s impossible to know the entire state of the universe at any given time. In turn, that claim is supported by the impossibility of measuring both the position and the velocity of subatomic particles at the same time.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The flaw in this argument is that the physicist mixes up the factual state of the universe with human knowledge about the state of the universe. Just because we can’t know everything about the universe at any given time, that doesn’t disprove the idea that there can be a complete and determined state of the universe.
20.
The physicist's reasoning is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
That it is ██████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
Like (C), the physicist doesn’t rely on the idea that it’s impossible to know either the position or velocity of all subatomic particles. The physicist’s point is just that we can’t know both of those things at the same time.
b
That the complete █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ███████████
This gets the argument backwards. The physicist claims that the states of particles are unknowable to imply that the complete state of the universe is unknowable—which is totally reasonable.
c
That it is ██████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ █ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ███████████
Like (A), this isn’t a flaw because it isn’t an assumption the physicist actually makes. The physicist’s point is that we can’t ever know both of these things at the same time. Whether we can know one or the other is irrelevant.
d
That it is ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████ █████
This is the flaw, because the physicist only focus on our knowledge about the universe, but draws a conclusion about the factual state of the universe. Without a link between knowledge and the factual state of the universe, the conclusion isn’t supported.
e
That the position ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
This just isn’t the case—if no individual particle’s position and velocity can be measured at the same time, then of course the position and velocity of all particles can’t be measured at the same time.