It may surprise you to learn that mechanism is a theory that all social phenomena can be explained by the existence of deterministic mechanism. It is the philosophical doctrine that human actions are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will.

Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.

This in my opinion is a conclusion far surpassing the gears and apparatus of conventional social interaction. It is however illustrative of the wealth of philosophic rubbish surrounding the thesis. It is an ideal debating resolution, permitting as it does incalculable theorems impossible to affirm or deny contrived on multiple levels of dispute.

Nomological determinism is the most common form of causal determinism and is generally synonymous with physical determinism. This is the notion that the past and the present dictate the future entirely and necessarily by rigid natural laws and that every occurrence inevitably results from prior events.

This latter proposition admittedly has a hint of appeal.  Nonetheless I cling to the pretence that each of us has limitless capacity to control or “determine” the direction we shall pursue. Oddly enough it was this contemplation which arose during a social gathering we enjoyed last evening with another resident of our apartment building.

Based upon the terms of the invitation, the foregathering was putatively to enjoy a summer evening’s prospect of the nearby river and the intervening meadow.  As it turned out the weather was not favourable, somewhat damp and drizzly, so we hadn’t the anticipated advantage of the setting sun glancing its yellow rays along the river’s path.  While we lingered momentarily on the balcony overlooking the upriver domaine, we soon retired to the drawing room where ensued our further conversation.

Amusingly to me the conversation from beginning to end was replete with factual depth and intellectual prosperity. Not once did we lapse into the vernacular of either the weather or one’s health, both of which were patently irrelevant to the more gripping communication surrounding important events in our respective lives. It isn’t often that one is treated to the benefit of a stimulating dialogue. Whether the details rendered for our collective contemplation were sufficient to characterize the inevitable results is a matter of some interest only.  In the meantime the components of one’s past do not fail to spread upon the whole a detectable film of colour.