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Philosophy vocabulary · Metaphysics

Determinism

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/dɪˈtɜːmɪnɪzəm/nounCore term

In philosophy, determinism means: The view that every event, including human choices, is fixed by earlier causes together with the laws of nature.

In Turkish: determinizm, belirlenimcilik, gerekircilik

How it is used

Central to the free will debate. Hard determinism denies free will; soft determinism (compatibilism) says freedom and determinism can both be true. Do not confuse it with fatalism, the idea that what will happen will happen whatever we do.

Example sentences

  1. If determinism is true, could you have done otherwise last night?

  2. Some argue that quantum physics weakens the case for strict determinism.

Common collocations

  • causal determinism
  • hard determinism
  • soft determinism
  • free will and determinism
  • free willThe ability to choose between different possible actions in a way that makes us genuinely responsible for what we do.
  • causationThe relation between a cause and its effect, in which one event or state brings about another.
  • metaphysicsThe branch of philosophy that studies the basic nature of reality: what exists, what things are, and ideas such as time, cause, identity and possibility.
  • physicalismThe view that everything that exists is physical or depends entirely on the physical, so that the mind is ultimately part of the physical world.

More terms: Metaphysics

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