The Mechanistic Physicalist view of the Cosmos

The idea that the universe is like a watch came about in the earliest stage of the enlightenment.  Unfortunately for the youth of today, they do not have the opportunities to own and see a mechanical watch like some of us did when we were young.  Consider an old self winding mechanical watch where the main spring was wound by a reciprocal motion of the person wearing it.  You will note that the inside consisted of gears and springs which were kept in motion by a mainspring wound by the motion of the watch.  The universe is something like that the planets circle the sun like gears revolve around their centers. This rotation through gravity forces the other planets to move and move at differing orbits around the Sun much like larger gears seem to run slower than smaller gears circling their centers at a seemingly faster rate but actually traversing a smaller area so the appearance of differing velocities is maintained.  Today’s watches are quartz crystal and do not have the same gear mechanism.  But at the size of the atom the movements and or oscillations is at a constant rate so that atomic clocks are now possible.  Although one cannot imagine the atomic clocks of the Physics lab to be as small as a wristwatch, some companies are advertising wrist watches and pocket watches as atomic watches.

The analogy between the universe and a watch still holds because the scientific approach to physics and chemistry etc operates on the assumption that the universe is regular like a watch, although you probably will never get a modern day physicist to admit that they operate on an assumption.  What a person needs to consider is the regularity of events in time and space, which are studied by the scientists assumes that entities in that universe obey or can be described in terms of mathematical laws, just like the gears of a mechanical watch can be described in terms of mathematical laws.  Likewise the quartz and atomic clocks can be described in terms of mathematical laws.  Time itself can thus be described mathematically.  But contemporary physicists are to a degree, with the advent of M theory and string theory, getting away from such mechanistic descriptions. 

Yet, you would be right to say that the analogy breaks down, when it comes to macro behavior of human beings. Emotions and motivations, abilities and things like love and passion cannot be exhaustively described in mechanistic terms. Yet, they are also relations which are very much a part of the world.  The psychology of human beings and animals are part of the world, just as much as the mechanical things and the physical things we can describe in mechanical terms. The mystic and mystical description of the world still has a place.  The poet, songwriter, and story teller have a place, if we would live in a world which is beautiful and harmonious, if we would be passionate about living in the world.