Necessarianism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An extreme form of determinism that holds that all phenomena, including the will, are subject to immutable rules of cause and effect; necessitarianism. uncountable
"Scholars working on Joseph Priestley have begun to take a proper measure of his philosophical position, known as “necessarianism,” a psychological determinism based on the teachings of the midcentury physician and theologian David Hartley—with, in Priestley′s own case, the addition of materialism. To its enemies, necessarianism seemed rank fatalism, but its adherents found that it both explained the evils about them and offered a sovereign remedy (generally through one or another variety of education) to resolve them and bring mankind to perfection."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Scholars working on Joseph Priestley have begun to take a proper measure of his philosophical position, known as “necessarianism,” a psychological determinism based on the teachings of the midcentury physician and theologian David Hartley—with, in Priestley′s own case, the addition of materialism. To its enemies, necessarianism seemed rank fatalism, but its adherents found that it both explained the evils about them and offered a sovereign remedy (generally through one or another variety of education) to resolve them and bring mankind to perfection."
Etymology
From necessarian + -ism.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.