Editing Determinism (section)

== Varieties ==
Determinism may commonly refer to any of the following viewpoints:

=== Causal ===
Causal determinism, sometimes synonymous with [[historical determinism]] (a sort of [[path dependence]]), is "the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature."<ref name="SEPcausaldeterminism">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Hoefer|first=Carl|title=Causal Determinism|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|edition=Winter 2009|date=2008|editor=Edward N. Zalta|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2009/entries/determinism-causal/}}</ref> However, it is a broad enough term to consider that:<ref name="SEPmoralresponsibility">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Eshleman|first=Andrew|editor=Edward N. Zalta|title=Moral Responsibility|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|edition=Winter 2009|date= 2009|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/moral-responsibility/}}</ref><blockquote>...One's deliberations, choices, and actions will often be necessary links in the causal chain that brings something about. In other words, even though our deliberations, choices, and actions are themselves determined like everything else, it is still the case, according to causal determinism, that the occurrence or existence of yet other things depends upon our deliberating, choosing and acting in a certain way.</blockquote>Causal determinism proposes that there is an unbroken chain of prior occurrences stretching back to the origin of the universe. The relation between events and the origin of the universe may not be specified. Causal determinists believe that there is nothing in the universe that has no cause or is [[causa sui|self-caused]].

Causal determinism has also been considered more generally as the idea that everything that happens or exists is caused by antecedent conditions.<ref name="stanfordincompatibilismarguments"/> In the case of nomological determinism, these conditions are considered events also, implying that the future is determined completely by preceding events—a combination of prior states of the universe and the laws of nature.<ref name="SEPcausaldeterminism" /> These conditions can also be considered metaphysical in origin (such as in the case of theological determinism).<ref name="SEPmoralresponsibility" />[[File:Bled (9664110474).jpg|thumb|right|140px|Many philosophical theories of determinism frame themselves with the idea that reality follows a sort of predetermined path.]]

==== {{Anchor|Nomological determinism}}Nomological ====
Nomological determinism is the most common form of causal determinism and is generally synonymous with physical determinism.{{cn|date=May 2025}} This is the notion that the past and the present dictate the future entirely and necessarily by rigid natural laws and that every occurrence inevitably results from prior events. Nomological determinism is sometimes illustrated by the [[thought experiment]] of [[Laplace's demon]].  [[Laplace]] posited that an omniscient observer, knowing with infinite precision all the positions and velocities of every particle in the universe, could predict the future entirely.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Robert C. Solomon |title=The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy |author2=Kathleen M. Higgins |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2009 |isbn=978-0495595151 |edition=8th |page=232 |chapter=Free will and determinism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ekh2AKqXdqgC&pg=PA232}}</ref> [[Ernest Nagel]] viewed determinism in terms of a [[configuration space (physics)|physical state]], declaring a theory to be deterministic if it predicts a state at other times uniquely from values at one given time.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ernest Nagel |title=The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation |publisher=Hackett |year=1999 |isbn=978-0915144716 |edition=2nd |pages=285–292 |chapter=§V: Alternative descriptions of physical state |quote=A theory is deterministic if, and only if, given its state variables for some initial period, the theory logically determines a unique set of values for those variables for any other period. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u6EycHgRfkQC&pg=PA285}}</ref>

==== Necessitarianism ====
[[Necessitarianism]] is a [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] principle that denies all mere possibility and maintains that there is only one possible way for the world to exist. [[Leucippus]] claimed there are no uncaused events and that everything occurs for a reason and by necessity.<ref>Leucippus, Fragment 569 – from Fr. 2 Actius I, 25, 4.</ref>

=== Predeterminism ===
[[Predeterminism]] is the idea that all events are determined in advance.<ref name="McKewan">{{cite encyclopedia |last=McKewan |first=Jaclyn |editor=H. James Birx"|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, & Culture |title=Predeterminism |year=2009 |publisher=Sage Publications, Inc. |doi=10.4135/9781412963961.n191 |pages=1035–1036|chapter=Evolution, Chemical |isbn=978-1412941648 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionaries |title=Predeterminism |url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/predeterminism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120904051839/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/predeterminism |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 September 2012 |access-date=20 December 2012 |date= 2010 }}. See also {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Collins English Dictionary |title=Predeterminism |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/predeterminism |access-date=20 December 2012 |publisher=Collins}}</ref> The concept is often argued by invoking causal determinism, implying that there is an unbroken [[Chain of events|chain of prior occurrences]] stretching back to the origin of the universe. In the case of predeterminism, this chain of events has been pre-established, and human actions cannot interfere with the outcomes of this pre-established chain.

Predeterminism can be categorized as a specific type of determinism when it is used to mean pre-established causal determinism.<ref name="McKewan" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/notes-determinism.html |title=Some Varieties of Free Will and Determinism |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |work=Philosophy 302: Ethics |publisher=philosophy.lander.edu |access-date=19 December 2012| quote=Predeterminism: the philosophical and theological view that combines God with determinism. On this doctrine events throughout eternity have been foreordained by some supernatural power in a causal sequence.}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=March 2025}} It can also be used interchangeably with causal determinism—in the context of its capacity to determine future events.<ref name="McKewan" /><ref>See for example {{cite arXiv |eprint=hep-th/0104219 |author=Hooft, G. |title=How does god play dice? (Pre-)determinism at the Planck scale |quote=Predeterminism is here defined by the assumption that the experimenter's 'free will' in deciding what to measure (such as his choice to measure the x- or the y-component of an electron's spin), is in fact limited by deterministic laws, hence not free at all |year=2001}}, and {{cite journal |author=Sukumar |first=C.V. |year=1996 |title=A new paradigm for science and architecture |journal=City |volume=1 |issue=1–2 |pages=181–183 |doi=10.1080/13604819608900044 |bibcode=1996City....1..181S |quote=Quantum Theory provided a beautiful description of the behaviour of isolated atoms and nuclei and small aggregates of elementary particles. Modern science recognized that predisposition rather than predeterminism is what is widely prevalent in nature.}}</ref> However, predeterminism is often considered as independent of causal determinism.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Borst, C. |year=1992 |title=Leibniz and the Compatibilist Account of Free Will |journal=Studia Leibnitiana |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=49–58 |jstor=40694201 |quote=Leibniz presents a clear case of a philosopher who does not think that predeterminism requires universal causal determinism.}}</ref><ref name="Society1971">{{cite book|author=Far Western Philosophy of Education Society|title=Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Far Western Philosophy of Education Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spkpAQAAMAAJ|year=1971|publisher=Far Western Philosophy of Education Society|page=12|quote='Determinism' is, in essence, the position which holds that all behavior is caused by prior behavior. "Predeterminism" is the position which holds that all behavior is caused by conditions which predate behavior altogether (such impersonal boundaries as "the human conditions", instincts, the will of God, inherent knowledge, fate, and such).}}</ref>

==== Biological ====
The term ''predeterminism'' is also frequently used in the context of biology and heredity, in which case it represents a form of [[biological determinism]], sometimes called ''genetic determinism''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Predeterminism |encyclopedia=Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-Webster, Inc. |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/predeterminism |access-date=20 December 2012}} See for example {{cite journal |author=Ormond |first=A.T. |year=1894 |title=Freedom and psycho-genesis |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429090 |journal=Psychological Review |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=217–229 |doi=10.1037/h0065249 |quote=The problem of predeterminism is one that involves the factors of heredity and environment, and the point to be debated here is the relation of the present self that chooses to these predetermining agencies.}}, and {{cite journal |author=Garris, M.D. |display-authors=etal |year=1992 |title=A Platform for Evolving Genetic Automata for Text Segmentation (GNATS) |journal=Science of Artificial Neural Networks |volume=1710 |pages=714–724 |bibcode=1992SPIE.1710..714G |doi=10.1117/12.140132 |quote=However, predeterminism is not completely avoided. If the codes within the genotype are not designed properly, then the organisms being evolved will be fundamentally handicapped. |s2cid=62639035}}</ref> Biological determinism is the idea that all human behaviors, beliefs, and desires are fixed by human genetic nature.

[[Friedrich Nietzsche]] explained that human beings are "determined" by their bodies and are subject to its passions, impulses, and instincts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |title=The Gay Science |publisher=Vintage |year=1974 |isbn=978-0394719856 |page=7 |language=English}}</ref>

=== Fatalism ===
[[Fatalism]] is normally distinguished from determinism,<ref name="SEPDeterminism">{{cite book| url = http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/| title = SEP, Causal Determinism| year = 2016| publisher = Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University}}</ref> as a form of [[Teleology|teleological]] determinism. Fatalism is the idea that everything is fated to happen, resulting in humans having no control over their future. [[Destiny|Fate]] has arbitrary power, and does not necessarily follow any causal or deterministic [[law]]s.<ref name="stanfordincompatibilismarguments" /> Types of fatalism include hard [[theological determinism]] and the idea of [[predestination]], where there is a [[God]] who determines all that humans will do. This may be accomplished through either foreknowledge of their actions, achieved through [[omniscience]]<ref name="Fischer">Fischer, John Martin (1989) ''God, Foreknowledge and Freedom''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. {{ISBN|1-55786-857-3}}.</ref> or by predetermining their actions.<ref name="Watt">{{Cite book |last=Watt |first=W. Montgomery |title=Free will and Predestination in Early Islam |date=1948 |publisher=Luzac & Company Ltd. |location=Londod |oclc=1813192}}</ref>

=== Theological ===
[[Theological determinism]] is a form of determinism that holds that all events that happen are either preordained (i.e., [[predestination|predestined]]) to happen by a [[monotheism|monotheistic]] [[deity]], or are [[destiny|destined]] to occur given its omniscience. Two forms of theological determinism exist, referred to as ''strong'' and ''weak'' theological determinism.<ref name="JordanTate2004">{{cite book|author1=Anne Lockyer Jordan|author2=Anne Lockyer Jordan Neil Lockyer Edwin Tate|author3=Neil Lockyer|author4=Edwin Tate|title=Philosophy of Religion for A Level|edition=OCR|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uBVuNip8qjkC|access-date=22 December 2012|year=2004|publisher=Nelson Thornes|isbn=978-0-7487-8078-5|page=211}}</ref>

Strong theological determinism is based on the concept of a [[creator deity]] dictating all events in history: "everything that happens has been predestined to happen by an omniscient, omnipotent divinity."<ref name="Iannone2001">{{cite book |author=Iannone |first=Abel Pablo |title=Dictionary of World Philosophy |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-415-17995-9 |page=194 |chapter=Determinism |quote=Theological determinism, or the doctrine of predestination: the view that everything which happens has been predestined to happen by an omniscient, omnipotent divinity. A weaker version holds that, though not predestined to happen, everything that happens has been eternally known by virtue of the divine foreknowledge of an omniscient divinity. If this divinity is also omnipotent, as in the case of the Judeo-Christian religions, this weaker version is hard to distinguish from the previous one because, though able to prevent what happens and knowing that it is going to happen, God lets it happen. To this, advocates of free will reply that God permits it to happen in order to make room for the free will of humans. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7wBmBO3vpE4C}}</ref>

Weak theological determinism is based on the concept of divine foreknowledge—"because God's omniscience is perfect, what God knows about the future will inevitably happen, which means, consequently, that the future is already fixed."<ref name="Huyssteen2003">{{cite book |author=Wentzel Van Huyssteen |title=Encyclopedia of Science and Religion |publisher=Macmillan Reference |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-02-865705-9 |volume=1 |page=217 |chapter=Theological determinism |quote=Theological determinism constitutes a fifth kind of determinism. There are two types of theological determinism, both compatible with scientific and metaphysical determinism. In the first, God determines everything that happens, either in one all-determining single act at the initial creation of the universe or through continuous divine interactions with the world. Either way, the consequence is that everything that happens becomes God's action, and determinism is closely linked to divine action and God's omnipotence. According to the second type of theological determinism, God has perfect knowledge of everything in the universe because God is omniscient. And, as some say, because God is outside of time, God has the capacity of knowing past, present, and future in one instance. This means that God knows what will happen in the future. And because God's omniscience is perfect, what God knows about the future will inevitably happen, which means, consequently, that the future is already fixed. |access-date=22 December 2012 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIcYAAAAIAAJ}}</ref> There exist slight variations on this categorization, however. Some claim either that theological determinism requires predestination of all events and outcomes by the divinity—i.e., they do not classify the weaker version as ''theological determinism'' unless libertarian free will is assumed to be denied as a consequence—or that the weaker version does not constitute ''theological determinism'' at all.<ref name="VanArragon2010">{{cite book|author=Raymond J. VanArragon|title=Key Terms in Philosophy of Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JyTohO1AMzwC|access-date=22 December 2012|year=2010|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4411-3867-5|page=21|quote=Theological determinism, on the other hand, claims that all events are determined by God. On this view, God decree that everything will go thus-and-so and ensure that everything goes that way, so that ultimately God is the cause of everything that happens and everything that happens is part of God's plan. We might think of God here as the all-powerful movie director who writes script and causes everything to go accord with it. We should note, as an aside, that there is some debate over what would be sufficient for theological determinism to be true. Some people claim that God's merely knowing what will happen determines that it will, while others believe that God must not only know but must also cause those events to occur in order for their occurrence to be determined.}}</ref>

With respect to free will, "theological determinism is the thesis that God exists and has infallible knowledge of all true propositions including propositions about our future actions", more minimal criteria designed to encapsulate all forms of theological determinism.<ref name="stanfordincompatibilismarguments">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Arguments for Incompatibilism |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/incompatibilism-arguments |last=Vihvelin |first=Kadri |date=Spring 2011 |editor=Edward |editor-first=N. Zalta |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150105080922/http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/incompatibilism-arguments/ |archive-date=5 Jan 2015}}</ref>

Theological determinism can also be seen as a form of causal determinism, in which the antecedent conditions are the nature and will of God.<ref name="SEPmoralresponsibility" /> Some have asserted that [[Augustine of Hippo]] introduced theological determinism into Christianity in 412 CE, whereas all prior Christian authors supported free will against Stoic and Gnostic determinism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Kenneth |title=Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology ''in the series Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 111'' |date=2018 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |location=Tübingen, Germany |isbn=978-3161557538 |pages=273–298}}</ref> However, there are many Biblical passages that seem to support the idea of some kind of theological determinism.

=== Adequate ===
Adequate determinism is the idea, because of [[quantum decoherence]], that [[quantum indeterminacy]] can be ignored for most macroscopic events. Random quantum events "average out" in the [[Expected value|limit of large numbers]] of particles (where the laws of [[quantum mechanics]] asymptotically approach the laws of classical mechanics).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Adequate (or Statistical) Determinism |url=http://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/adequate_determinism.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250118183011/https://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/adequate_determinism.html |archive-date=January 18, 2025 |website=The Information Philosopher}}</ref> 

=== Determined probability ===
[[Stephen Hawking]] explains that the microscopic world of quantum mechanics is one of determined probabilities. That is, nature is not governed by laws that determine the future with certainty but by laws that determine the probability of various futures.<ref name="GDesign"/>{{rp|p=32|}} 

=== Many-worlds interpretation ===
The [[many-worlds interpretation]] of quantum mechanics accepts the linear causal sets of sequential events with adequate consistency yet also suggests constant forking of causal chains that can in principle be globally deterministic.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kent |first=Adrian |date=2010 |title=One World Versus Many: The Inadequacy of Everettian Accounts of Evolution, Probability, and Scientific Confirmation |journal=Many Worlds |pages=307–354 |arxiv=0905.0624 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560561.003.0012 |isbn=978-0-19-956056-1}}</ref> Meaning the causal set of events leading to the present are all valid yet appear as a singular linear time stream within a much broader unseen conic probability field of other outcomes that "split off" from the locally observed timeline. Under this model causal sets are still "consistent" yet not exclusive to singular iterated outcomes.

The interpretation sidesteps the exclusive retrospective causal chain problem of "could not have done otherwise" by suggesting "the other outcome does exist" in a set of parallel states of the universe that (in one version) split off in any interacting event. This interpretation is sometimes described with the example of agent-based choices.<ref>[[Lev Vaidman|Vaidman, Lev]], [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2021/entries/qm-manyworlds "Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics"], in ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (Fall 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), accessed on 2 March 2025</ref>

=== Philosophical varieties ===
==== Nature/nurture controversy ====
Although some of the above forms of determinism concern human behaviors and [[cognition]], others frame themselves as an answer to the debate on [[Nature versus nurture|nature and nurture]]. They will suggest that one factor will entirely determine behavior. As scientific understanding has grown, however, the strongest versions of these theories have been widely rejected as a [[Fallacy of the single cause|single-cause fallacy]].<ref name="melo-martin">{{cite journal |author=Inmaculada de Melo-Martín |year=2005 |title=Firing up the nature/nurture controversy: Bioethics and genetic determinism |journal=Journal of Medical Ethics |volume=31 |issue=9 |pages=526–530 |doi=10.1136/jme.2004.008417 |pmc=1734214 |pmid=16131554}}</ref> In other words, the modern deterministic theories attempt to explain how the interaction of both nature ''and'' nurture is entirely predictable. The concept of [[heritability]] has been helpful in making this distinction.

* [[Biological determinism]], sometimes called ''genetic determinism'', is the idea that each of human behaviors, beliefs, and desires are fixed by human genetic nature.
* [[Behaviorism]] involves the idea that all behavior can be traced to specific causes—either environmental or reflexive. [[John B. Watson]] and [[B. F. Skinner]] developed this nurture-focused determinism.
* [[Cultural materialism (anthropology)|Cultural materialism]], contends that the physical world impacts and sets constraints on human behavior.
* [[Cultural determinism]], along with [[social determinism]], is the nurture-focused theory that the culture in which we are raised determines who we are.
* [[Environmental determinism]], also known as ''climatic'' or ''geographical determinism,'' proposes that the physical environment, rather than social conditions, determines culture. Supporters of environmental determinism often{{quantify|date=August 2014}} also support [[Behaviorism|behavioral determinism]]. Key proponents of this notion have included [[Ellen Churchill Semple]], [[Ellsworth Huntington]], [[Thomas Griffith Taylor]] and possibly [[Jared Diamond]], although his status as an environmental determinist is debated.<ref>{{cite journal
 |last = Andrew
 |first = Sluyter
 |title=Neo-Environmental Determinism, Intellectual Damage Control, and Nature/Society Science
 |journal = Antipode
 |volume = 35
 |issue = 4
 |doi = 10.1046/j.1467-8330.2003.00354.x
 |year = 2003
 |pages = 813–817
 |bibcode = 2003Antip..35..813S
 |url = https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=geoanth_pubs
 |url-access = subscription
 }}
</ref>

==== Determinism and prediction ====
Other "deterministic"{{Opinion|date=December 2022}} theories actually seek only to highlight the importance of a particular factor in predicting the future. These theories often use the factor as a sort of guide or constraint on the future. They need not suppose that complete knowledge of that one factor would allow the making of perfect predictions.

* [[Psychological determinism]] can mean that humans must act according to reason, but it can also be synonymous with some sort of [[psychological egoism]]. The latter is the view that humans will always act according to their perceived best interest.
* [[Linguistic determinism]] proposes that language determines (or at least limits) the things that humans can think and say and thus know. The [[Linguistic relativity|Sapir–Whorf hypothesis]] argues that individuals experience the world based on the grammatical structures they habitually use.
* [[Economic determinism]] attributes primacy to economic structure over politics in the development of human history. It is associated with the [[dialectical materialism]] of [[Karl Marx]].
* [[Technological determinism]] is the theory that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values.