Skip to content
ARCHIEENGLISH
LearnPlayWordsRanking
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Words
  • Ranking
  • Mine
← Vocabulary

determinism

UK/dɪˈtɜːmɪnɪzəm/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,002 of 15,258mostly written

Determinism is the view that everything is fixed by what came before. Hard determinism, biological determinism, argue for determinism.

The problem it creates is free will: if every event follows from earlier ones, it is hard to say a choice could have gone otherwise. Compatibilists argue the two can both be true. Determinism in the loose sense means one factor explains everything.

Definitions of determinism

  1. 1noundeterminismThe view that everything is fixed by what came before.C2

    “If determinism is true, then every choice you make was fixed before you were born.”

determinism is a philosophical position.

Where it comes from

French determinisme, from determine, from Latin determinare, to set limits, from terminus, a boundary.

  1. French

    déterminisme

  2. English, today

    determinism

French déterminisme, equivalent to determine + -ism.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Big Ideas

Practise this word

determinism in the wild

  • Historically, debates about determinism have involved many philosophical positions and given rise to multiple varieties or interpretations of determinism.

    Determinism

  • Philosophical varieties extend to human behavior, including biological, psychological, social, and cultural determinism, as well as structural determinism, which highlights systemic constraints.

    Determinism

  • In the history of science, Laplace's demon was a notable articulation of the idea of scientific causal determinism, published in 1814 by Pierre-Simon Laplace.

    Laplace's demon

  • In other words, that causal determinism does not exclude the truth of possible future outcomes.

    Compatibilism

  • Yet another way of looking at the concept of cultural determinism is to contrast it with the idea of environmental determinism.

    Cultural determinism

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • determine