Editing Predeterminism (section)

==Definitional difficulties==
Predeterminism is difficult to discuss because its simple definition can logically lead to a variety of similar, complex (and, perhaps, better defined) concepts in [[metaphysics]], [[theology]], and the philosophy of [[free will]]. The term ''predeterminism'' suggests not just a determining of all events, but the prior and deliberately conscious determining of all events (therefore done, presumably, by a conscious being). Due to this, predeterminism and the similar term [[determinism]] are easily and often confused or associated with ideas ranging, for instance, from the [[Physicalism|physicalist]] (and often scientific) notion of ''[[causal determinism]]'' to even the theological (and often religious) notion of ''[[predestination]]''.

A [[secular]] example to try to illustrate predeterminism is that a fetus's future physical, emotional, and other personal characteristics as a matured human being may be considered "predetermined" by heredity, i.e. derived from a chain of events going back long before their eventual birth. However, one of the difficulties with defining predeterminism using this example is that the word ''predetermine'' necessarily implies a conscious being "doing" the determining ahead of time. With regards to predetermined heredity, a conscious being (perhaps a genetic scientist) is presumed to be the one speculating on what the fetus's personal characteristics will turn out to be, for example, based on looking at the genomes of the fetus and its ancestors. If there were not this conscious entity, the scientist, then one could say merely that the fetus's characteristics are ''determined'' by heredity, rather than ''pre''determined. Predeterminism necessarily implies, at the very least, a passive but all-knowing observer, if not an active planner, designer, or manipulator (of the fetus's personal characteristics). This basic scientific idea of hereditary determination, though, already fulfills the definition of [[causal determinism]], a metaphysical concept.

While determinism usually refers to a [[Naturalism (philosophy)|naturalistically]] explainable causality of events, predeterminism seems by definition to suggest a person or a "someone" who is controlling or planning the causality of events ''before'' they occur and who then perhaps resides beyond the natural, causal universe. This creates a definitional conflict because predeterminism, by this understanding, logically leads to a belief in the existence of a conscious being who must determine ''all'' actions and events in advance and who, possessing such seeming [[omnipotence]], almost certainly operates outside of the laws of nature. This conscious entity is probably, then, a being who is omnipotent as well as presumably [[supernatural]] and [[omniscient]]. The definitional confusion here is that there is already a name for this very concept: ''[[predestination]]''. Predestination asserts that a supremely powerful being has, in advance, fixed all events and outcomes in the universe; it is a famous doctrine of the [[Calvinist]]s in [[Christian theology]].

Likewise, the doctrine of [[fatalism]] already explicitly attributes all events and outcomes to the will of a (vaguer) higher power such as fate or destiny. Furthermore, in philosophic debates about the compatibility of [[free will]] and [[determinism]], some argue that ''predeterminism'' back to the origin of the universe is simply what philosophers mean by the more common term "determinism." Others have suggested that the term "[[self-determination]]" be used to describe actions as merely "determined" by an agent's reasons, motives, and desires.

When various interpretation of the word ''predeterminism'' can be defined even better by other terms, such as the aforementioned determinism, predestination, or fatalism, then the definition of predeterminism itself appears awkward, unclear, and perhaps even worthless in terms of practical or philosophic discussion.