Indeterminism
Indeterminism:
(noun)
1:
theory that the will is free and that deliberate choice and actions are
not determined by or predictable from antecedent causes
2: a
theory that holds that not every event has a cause
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Indeterminism is the view that at least some events in the universe have no deterministic cause but occur randomly, or by chance. It is the opposite of determinism and related to chance. It is highly relevant to the philosophical problem of free will. In science, most specifically quantum theory in physics, indeterminism is the belief that no event is certain and the entire outcome of anything is probabilistic. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the "Born rule", proposed by Max Born, are often starting points in support of the indeterministic nature of the universe.
Aristotle described
four possible causes (material, efficient, formal, and final).
Aristotle's word for these causes was
αἰτίαι (aitiai),
which translates as causes in the sense of the multiple factors
responsible for an event. Aristotle did not subscribe to the simplistic
"every event has a (single) cause", an idea that was to come later.
In his Physics and Metaphysics,
Aristotle said there were accidents (συμβεβηκός, sumbebekos)
caused by nothing but chance (τύχη, tukhe).
He noted that he and the early physicists found no place for chance
among their causes.
Aristotle distanced himself from any view which makes chance a crucial
factor in the general explanation of things. He
thought chance events are, by definition unusual and, as such,
they form the complement class to those things which can be given full
natural explanations.