Determinism

noun

noun ·5 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The doctrine that all actions are determined by the current state and immutable laws of the universe, with no possibility of choice. countable, uncountable

    "Pereboom’s book presents probably the best available argument for hard incompatibilism (the view that free will is not compatible with causal determinism), and his defence of the sourcehood view is just part of this overall argument."

  2. 2
    (philosophy) a philosophical theory holding that all events are inevitable consequences of antecedent sufficient causes; often understood as denying the possibility of free will wordnet
  3. 3
    The property of having behavior determined only by initial state and input. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
fatalismaftertimeafteryearsby-and-bycalvinismcourse ahead

Example

More examples

"Pereboom’s book presents probably the best available argument for hard incompatibilism (the view that free will is not compatible with causal determinism), and his defence of the sourcehood view is just part of this overall argument."

Etymology

Borrowed from French déterminisme, equivalent to determine + -ism.

Related phrases

biological determinismcreeping determinismeconomic determinismgenetic determinismnominative determinismnon-determinismretrospective determinismtechno-determinismnon determinism

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.