determinists
Free will deniers
Determinists are people who believe that all events, including human choices and actions, are ultimately caused by prior conditions and could not have happened otherwise.
The philosophy holds that free will is an illusion—every decision you make was inevitable given the chain of causes preceding it.
Hard determinists argue that moral responsibility is meaningless if we couldn't have chosen differently.
Predetermined course of events
- predestinationDivinely predetermined fate
- providenceDivine protective care
- kismetPreordained future outcome
- fortuneWealth or destiny
doom · foreordained · preordained · inevitable · immutable · fixed · inescapable · fatalism
Autonomous choice capacity
- agencyPower to act
- indeterminismDoctrine allowing genuine randomness
- libertarianismMinimal-government political philosophy
- metaphysicsPhilosophy of existence's nature
philosophy of mind · physicalism · reductionism · naturalism · Laplace · Spinoza · Hobbes · mechanism
What produces an effect
- effectResult of a cause
- chainLinked segments forming length
- sequenceOrdered succession of elements
- consequenceResult of an action
reaction · mechanism · laws · antecedent · trigger · stimulus · physics · dynamics
Prediction of future conditions
- predictionForecast of coming events
- calculationMathematical problem-solving process
- certaintyTotal absence of doubt
- prognosisPredicted disease course
foresight · extrapolation · modeling · projection · anticipation · expectation · estimation · trajectory
destiny
Predetermined course of events
- predestinationDivinely predetermined fate
- providenceDivine protective care
- kismetPreordained future outcome
fortune · doom · foreordained · preordained · inevitable · immutable · fixed · inescapable · fatalism · karma
free will
Autonomous choice capacity
- agencyPower to act
- indeterminismDoctrine allowing genuine randomness
- libertarianismMinimal-government political philosophy
metaphysics · philosophy of mind · physicalism · reductionism · naturalism · Laplace · Spinoza · Hobbes · mechanism · materialism
cause
What produces an effect
consequence · reaction · mechanism · laws · antecedent · trigger · stimulus · physics · dynamics · interaction
forecast
Prediction of future conditions
- predictionForecast of coming events
- calculationMathematical problem-solving process
- certaintyTotal absence of doubt
prognosis · foresight · extrapolation · modeling · projection · anticipation · expectation · estimation · trajectory · probability
- thinkersthinkers, thinker, philosophers, philosopher, Aristotle
- Epistemologistsempiricists, rationalists, positivists, constructivists, instrumentalists
- believersbeliever, believers, adherent, devotee, theist
- genetic determinismHeredity alone shapes traits
- hard determinismAll events causally predetermined
- deterministic chaosUnpredictability from precise rules