Determinism in Astrological Decision Making

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Dear All, The following article is from: https://knol.google.com/k/decision-care/astrological-decision-making/1jtjo1q3ip5hv/3# Love and Regards,Sreenadh=================================Determinism in Vedic Astrological Decision MakingIn this article, we demonstrate that arguments against astrological

decision making all necessarily assume a strong version of astrological

determinism. If these deterministic assumptions are false, as we

maintain they clearly are, then these particular arguments against

astrological decision making lose their logical force. Thus, serious

discussion of the morality of astrological decision making is more

properly focused on arguments that examine and address the expected

consequences of astrological decision making for individuals and

society, and not on ones that would pre-empt such a discussion by

arguing that astrological decision making is inherently objectionable.

Our analysis is divided into three separate parts. First, we attempt

to define two important terms: "astrological decision making" and

"astrological determinism." Second, after explaining the difference

between the stronger and weaker forms of astrological determinism, and

examining why the stronger versions of astrological determinism appear

very rarely in astrology, we unpack four common arguments against the

use of astrological decision making and show how they lean heavily on

assumptions of strong astrological determinism. Finally, we argue that

moral assessments of astrological decision making should consider

arguments that pragmatically examine the medical, social, and economic

consequences of astrological decision making, rather than those that

rely on unwarranted assumptions of astrological determinism to portray

astrological decision making as inherently objectionable.

What is astrological decision making?

"Astrological decision making" is making a decision based on the

positions of the stars and planets in the sky which are correlated with

earthly events.

Some examples of astrological decision making include:

When to invest in real estate or which business to invest inWhich profession to go forWhen to marryWhom to marryand so on

What is astrological determinism?

"astrological determinism" is another term that needs clarification.

In philosophy, determinism is usually equated with the problem of free

will: We are compelled to make the choices that we make as a result of

previous circumstances, and we cannot make choices that are genuinely

free. This type of determinism, which we shall call psychological

determinism, has some profound implications for morality and the law,

since we normally ascribe moral or legal responsibility to people under

the assumption that they can choose freely. Over the years,

philosophers have developed three basic positions on the problem of

free will: 1) hard determinism, which holds that we cannot make free

choices; 2) indeterminism, which holds that human actions result from

spontaneous acts of the will that break free from the world's causal

nexus, and 3) compatiblism, which holds that free will is compatible

with determinism [1]. According to some compatibilists, actions may be

considered "free" if they are caused in the appropriate way. For

example, a "free" act is one that results from reasoning and

deliberation rather than external forces or emotional compulsions [1].

While questions about the metaphysics of human freedom are of the

utmost importance in philosophy, they are not the focus of this

article. However, there are some important parallels between

psychological determinism and astrological determinism, since the

interpretation of causation plays a pivotal role in both of these

doctrines. Also, as we shall see below, worries about astrological

determinism can reinforce concerns about psychological determinism [2].

Since the concept of causation plays a central role in various forms of

determinism in philosophy and science, we will say a bit more about

causation. We do not have space in this paper to provide a detailed

analysis of causation, but we will make a few critical points that are

relevant to questions about astrological determinism (for further

discussion of causation, see Salmon, 1997; Tooley, 2000) [3,4].

First, causation is a temporally ordered relationship between

events, properties, or processes. In the statement, "lightning caused

the forest fire," lightning precedes the forest fire. Second, almost

all causal relationships involve more than one factor (or condition).

For example, the dryness of the forest and wind velocity would also be

causal factors in the forest fire. Very often, causal factors serve as

background assumptions in causal explanations [4]. For example, a

person who claims that lightning caused the forest fire would be

assuming that there was enough oxygen in the atmosphere to fuel the

fire. Third, causal statements can be used in explanation or prediction

[3]. For example, the statement "smoking causes lung cancer" can be

used to predict that a person who is a heavy smoker will develop

cancer, or to explain why a heavy smoker develops cancer.

Fourth, and of greatest import for our purposes, causal

relationships can be either deterministic or probabilistic [3]. For

example, consider the claim "If you drop a rock, it will fall". Many

would consider this to be a deterministic form of causation because it

does not make a reference to the probability, or chance, of an event

occurring: the rock will fall if it is dropped (assuming background

conditions, e.g. there is not a strong wind pushing the rock up).

However, consider research on smoking and lung cancer. Smoking causes

lung cancer, even though many smokers do not develop lung cancer. If

you smoke, you may not get lung cancer, but smoking increases your

probability of getting lung cancer. While deterministic causation is

common in the physical sciences, it is very rare in astrological

decision making. Most explanations and predictions in the astrological

sciences however are probabilistic, not deterministic.

With the preceding comments in mind, we now consider astrological

determinism. astrological determinism can be loosely defined as the

view that planetary positions cause predictions of say medical

symptoms. This definition is almost trivially true, because medical

symptoms have some type of astrological basis. More precisely, one

could say that diabetes is astrologically determined if it is caused by

a particular planetary configuration. However, even this definition is

not precise enough, since it ignores that fact that astrological

causation is usually not deterministic in the strict sense: the

particular planetary configuration often merely increase the

probability, though sometimes quite substantially, that diabetes is

present. To differentiate between these types of astrological

causation, we distinguish between three different forms of astrological

determinism:

Strong astrological determinism: the particular planetary configuration always leads to diabetes.

Moderate astrological determinism: more often than not the

particular planetary configuration leads to diabetes. (the particular

planetary configuration increases the probability of diabetes and the

probability of diabetes, given the particular planetary configuration

is greater than 50%).

Weak astrologicaldeterminism: the particular planetary configuration

sometimes leads to the development of diabetes. (the particular

planetary configuration increase the probability of diabetes, but the

probability of diabetes is still less than 50%.)

Strong astrological determinism is not very common. First and

foremost, the dasa timing environment plays a very important role in

the expression of most planetary influence. The complex interaction and

interdependence of planetary strength and significator determination

along with dasa period direct predictions and hence astrological

decision making.

Before concluding our article, we briefly discuss a point, which

calls into question the deterministic portrayal of astrological

decision making and is, therefore, relevant to understanding the role

of astrological determinism in arguments against astrological decision

making. First, one must distinguish between determinism and fatalism.

Fatalism is the view that specific outcomes or events will occur in our

lives no matter what we do. The classic example of fatalism is the myth

of Oedipus. A prophet told Oedipus that he would kill his father and

marry his mother. To avoid this horrible outcome, Oedipus went to live

far away from his homeland, and was still unable to avoid fulfilling

the prophecy. Analogously, astrological fatalism is the view that we

cannot avoid specific astrologically predetermined outcomes, no matter

what we do or what happens to us: our fate is in our planets.

Although astrological fatalism has also become a popular belief in some

circles, critical examination of this idea shows that it does not

square with commonsense. As an almost trivial example, for

astrological fatalism to be true an individual possessing a planet

responsible for a specific type of cancer must develop that type of

cancer, no matter what he or she does. Clearly, this is not the way the

world works. Leaving aside any discussion of astrological causation and

assuming that, in this case, the planet strongly determines cancer,

science might yet discover a pre-emptive cure for that particular

cancer and thus prevent planetary expression. Or, to offer one macabre

alternative, the person might get hit by a bus and die before ever

developing the cancer.

1. Dennett D: Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting. Cambridge: MIT Press; 1984.

2. Peters T: Playing God: Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom. New York: Routledge; 1996.

3. Salmon W: Causality and Explanation. New York: Oxford University Press; 1997.

4. Tooley M: Time, Tense, and Causation. New York: Oxford University Press; 2000=================================