Lexicon: Determinism

The Etymology

From the Latin De-terminare ("To limit" or "To set bounds"). In philosophy, it is the doctrine that all events, including human actions, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will.

The Definition

Spinoza was a "Hard Determinist." He believed that "In nature there is nothing contingent, but all things have been determined from the necessity of the divine nature to exist and produce an effect." In other words: The Universe is a perfect, unbroken chain of cause and effect. If Employee A makes a mistake, it wasn't a random "oops." It was the inevitable result of Training B, Stressor C, and Process D. To believe in "Free Will" (in the magical sense) is, to Spinoza, simply a lack of knowledge about the causes.

"Men think themselves free because they are conscious of their volitions and desires, but are ignorant of the causes by which they are led."

The Corporate Application

In the C-Suite, belief in "Free Will" is often an excuse for lazy management.

• The Lazy Manager: "Bob messed up because Bob chose to be careless. I will yell at Bob." (Blame).
• The Spinozist Manager: "Bob messed up. Since Bob is a rational agent striving to persevere (Conatus), he would not choose to fail. Therefore, the system (Inputs) determined this failure. Was it the UI? The deadline? The incentive structure?" (Root Cause Analysis).

The Algorithm of Reality View your company as an algorithm. If the output is "Low Sales," you don't scream at the output. You debug the code (The Deterministic Chain). True forgiveness is not moral; it is mathematical. You don't forgive the bad quarter because you are "nice"; you accept it because you understand it was the only possible output given the inputs. Now, change the inputs.