Determinacy is the fixation of a distinction for a subject: in relation to a distinction produced by the subject, there is one definite state rather than several alternatives that remain open.
If a cup is currently standing on a table, then in relation to the distinction “is the cup on the table or not?” there is determinacy. It is on the table. If a die has already landed and shows a four, then its face value is determinate: a four was rolled. If an event has already occurred in a particular way, then whether that very event occurred is determinate.
At the same time, determinacy is not a property of reality in general. One cannot move from “there is determinacy in this distinction” to “reality is determined.” The same situation may be determinate in relation to one distinction and indeterminate in relation to another.
The cup is definitely standing on the table. But nothing follows from this about where it will be an hour later. A person is definitely in a room right now. But this does not determine what decision they will make in five minutes. An event definitely occurred. But the determinacy of the event itself does not imply that all its consequences are determinate.
Therefore, determinacy always has a boundary.
It answers not the question “is reality determined?” but the question: what exactly is determinate, for which subject, and in relation to which distinction produced by that subject?
This is essential because otherwise local determinacy imperceptibly becomes an assertion of global determinacy. The fact that the subject discovers stable states within distinctions they have produced does not yet imply the existence of a completely determined reality in which every state already has a single corresponding continuation.
The determinacy of one distinction is not automatically inherited by other distinctions.
Knowing the position of an object does not imply that its future position is determinate. If the present state of a system is determinate, that does not mean the next state is determinate. If the cause of an event is determinate in one selected description, it does not follow that the entire causal structure of what is occurring is determinate. Each such inference requires its own justification.
Determinacy and Knowledge
Determinacy must also be distinguished from knowledge of determinacy.
Reality may fix one state in relation to a distinction produced by the subject, even though the subject does not yet know which state has been fixed. A playing card lies face down. It already has a particular value, but the subject cannot see it. Here, uncertainty in the subject’s knowledge does not mean that the value of the card is indeterminate within that distinction.
The opposite situation is also possible: the subject believes a state to be determinate, although there are no grounds for fixing it in that way. The subject’s confidence does not by itself create determinacy in reality.
Therefore, the phrases “this is determinate” and “I know that this is determinate” refer to different things. The first concerns the state of reality within a distinction produced by the subject. The second concerns the subject’s knowledge of that state.
This distinction is especially important when discussing uncertainty. Otherwise any absence of knowledge may be mistaken for indeterminacy in reality, and any confidence for its determinacy.
Determinacy Does Not Require a Complete Picture
For determinacy to exist in relation to a produced distinction, the subject does not need to obtain a final model of all reality.
It is entirely possible to establish that a door is currently closed without possessing a theory of the Universe. It is possible to determine the mass of a particular object under specified conditions without determining all its properties. One can establish that an event occurred on September 19 without obtaining an exhaustive explanation of all the causes that led to it.
Determinacy can therefore be local.
Moreover, practically all determinacy available to a subject is of this kind: a particular state, relationship, value, boundary, or result is determined, while everything else need not become determinate along with it.
This allows determinacy to exist without the fundamental closure of the world.
There is no need to assume that somewhere there already exists a complete set of answers to every possible question. It is sufficient that, within a particular distinction, the alternative has already been eliminated: this happened rather than something else; it is here rather than there; the value is this rather than another.
Determinacy as the Elimination of an Alternative
Determinacy can be described in terms of a set of possibilities.
As long as several genuinely possible states remain open in relation to a particular distinction, there is indeterminacy. When only one actualized state remains in relation to that distinction, determinacy arises.
But it is important not to turn this into an assertion that determinacy necessarily arises only over time. Some properties may already be determinate at the moment when the subject first identifies the corresponding distinction. Others become determinate as the result of an event. Still others may remain indeterminate.
Therefore, what is fundamental here is not “a transition from future to present,” but the structure of the distinction itself:
determinacy exists for a subject where, in relation to a distinction produced by that subject, reality fixes one state instead of leaving several alternatives open.
The future is only one of the spaces in which this distinction is especially noticeable. But determinacy is not reducible to the future, the present, or time in general.
The Boundary of Determinacy
No more can be extracted from determinacy than what it actually determines.
If it is known that an object is at point A, its position is determinate relative to the chosen coordinate system. This fact alone does not determine its speed, the history of its arrival at point A, its subsequent trajectory, or the cause of its presence there.
If a person uttered a phrase, it is determinate that the phrase was uttered. But its meaning, the speaker’s intention, its consequences, and subsequent actions do not become determinate merely because of the fact that it was uttered.
Every instance of determinacy has its own scope.
It is precisely the loss of this boundary that creates the illusion that discovering one determinate fact gradually grants the right to fill in all the rest of reality. But determinacy does not spread automatically. It remains where grounds exist for the particular determination.
In this sense, determinacy is not opposed to an open reality.
An open reality can contain an enormous number of determinate facts. A stone is here. An event occurred. A temperature has a measured value. A person made a choice. A document was signed. An airplane landed.
All these states may be determinate.
But no amount of local determinacy in itself turns reality into a single, already completed structure.
Determinacy is not the closure of reality. Determinacy is the fixation of a distinction produced by a subject within a specific scope.
