Necessitarianism
Encyclopedia
Necessitarianism is a metaphysical
principle that denies all mere possibility; there is exactly one way for the world to be. It is the strongest member of a family of principles, including hard determinism, each of which deny free will
, reasoning that human actions are predetermined by external or internal antecedents. Necessitarianism is stronger than hard determinism, because even the hard determinist would grant that the causal chain constituting the world might have been different as a whole, even though each member of that series could not have been different, given its antecedent causes.
The Century Dictionary
defined it differently in 1889–91, essentially as belief that the will is not free but instead subject to external antecedent causes or natural laws of cause and effect. The definitions of necessarian, necessarianism, and necessitarian (and possibly all the related words) were written by the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, who argued against necessitarianism with Paul Carus
. (Only pronunciation, etymology, and the like are omitted below).
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
principle that denies all mere possibility; there is exactly one way for the world to be. It is the strongest member of a family of principles, including hard determinism, each of which deny free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
, reasoning that human actions are predetermined by external or internal antecedents. Necessitarianism is stronger than hard determinism, because even the hard determinist would grant that the causal chain constituting the world might have been different as a whole, even though each member of that series could not have been different, given its antecedent causes.
The Century Dictionary
Century Dictionary
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia was one of the largest encyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. The first edition was published from 1889 to 1891 by The Century Company of New York, in six, eight, or ten volume versions in 7,046 pages with some 10,000 wood-engraved illustrations...
defined it differently in 1889–91, essentially as belief that the will is not free but instead subject to external antecedent causes or natural laws of cause and effect. The definitions of necessarian, necessarianism, and necessitarian (and possibly all the related words) were written by the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, who argued against necessitarianism with Paul Carus
Paul Carus
Paul Carus, Ph.D. was a German-American author, editor, a student of comparative religion, and professor of philosophy.-Life and education:...
. (Only pronunciation, etymology, and the like are omitted below).
necessarian [...] I. a. Relating to necessarianism; necessitarian.
II. n. One who accepts the doctrine of necessarianism; a necessitarian.The only question in dispute between the advocates of philosophical liberty and the necessarians is this: "whether volition can take place independently of motive." W. Belsham, Philos. of the Mind, ix. § 1.Necessarians will say that even this [voluntary effort for a good end] is ultimately the effect of causes extraneous to the man's self. H. Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics, p. 258.
necessarianism [...] The doctrine that the action of the will is the necessary effect of the antecedent causes; the theory that the will is subject to the general mechanical law of cause and effect. Also necessitarianism, and rarely necessism.Let us suppose, further, that we do not know more of cause and effect than a certain definite order of succession among facts, and that we have a knowledge of the necessity of that succession — and hence of necessary laws — and I, for my part, do not see what escape there is from utter materialism and necessarianism. Huxley.
necessism [...] Same as necessarianism. Contemporary Rev. [Rare.]
necessitarian [...] I. a. Of or pertaining to necessity or necessitarianism: opposed to libertarian.
II. n. One who maintains the doctrine of philosophical necessity, in opposition to that of freedom of the will: opposed to libertarian.The Arminian has entangled the Calvinist, the Calvinist has entangled the Arminian, in a labyrinth of contradictions. The advocate of free-will appeals to conscience and instinct — to an a priori sense of what ought in equity to be. The necessitarian falls back upon the experienced reality of facts. Froude, Calvinism.
necessitarianism [...] Same as necessarianism.
See also
- DeterminismDeterminismDeterminism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
- ExistentialismExistentialismExistentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
- FatalismFatalismFatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate.Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:...
- Libertarian free will
- Modal LogicModal logicModal logic is a type of formal logic that extends classical propositional and predicate logic to include operators expressing modality. Modals — words that express modalities — qualify a statement. For example, the statement "John is happy" might be qualified by saying that John is...