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Necessitarianism is ametaphysical principle that denies all mere possibility; there is exactly one way for the world to be.
It is the strongest member of a family of principles, includinghard determinism, each of which denylibertarian free will, reasoning that human actions are predetermined by external or internal antecedents. Necessitarianism is stronger than hard determinism, because even the hard determinist would grant that the causal chain constituting the world might have been different as a whole, even though each member of that series could not have been different, given its antecedent causes.[citation needed]
The most famous defender of necessitarianism in the history of philosophy isSpinoza.
Anthony Collins was also known for his defense of necessitarianism. His briefInquiry Concerning Human Liberty (1715) was a key statement of the necessitarianist standpoint.
TheCentury Dictionary defined it in 1889–91 as belief that the will is not free, but instead subject to external antecedent causes ornatural laws of cause and effect.[1][2][3]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Century Dictionary, Vol. V, Page 3951, Necess to Necessity. [DjVu filehttp://www.leoyan.com/century-dictionary.com/05/index05.djvu?djvuopts&page=395] andJPEG file.
- ^See "Peirce'sCentury Dictionary Definitions" (Eprint) at the Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism (Kenneth Laine Ketner, main editor of theComprehensive Bibliography mentioned there), and page 68 in theword list PDF file (PDF's page 25).
- ^
- Peirce, C. S. (1892) "The Doctrine of Necessity Examined",The Monist, v. II, n. 3, pp. 321-337, The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, April 1892, for the Hegeler Institute.Google BooksEprint.Internet ArchiveEprint. ReprintedCollected Papers v. 6, paragraphs 35-65,The Essential Peirce v. 1, pp. 298-311.
- Carus, Paul (1892), "Mr. Charles S. Peirce's Onslaught on the Doctrine of Necessity" inThe Monist, v. 2, n. 4, July, Paul Carus, ed., 560–582, The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, for the Hegeler Institute.Google BooksEprint.Internet ArchiveEprint.
- Peirce, C. S. (1893), "Reply to the Necessitarians",The Monist, v. III, n. 4, pp. 526-570, The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, July 1893, for the Hegeler Institute.Google BooksEprint.Internet ArchiveEprint. ReprintedCollected Papers v. 6, paragraphs 588-618.
- Carus, Paul (1893), "The Founder of Tychism, His Methods, Philosophy, and Criticisms: In Reply to Mr. Charles S. Peirce" inThe Monist, v. 3, n. 4, July, Paul Carus, ed., 571–622, The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, for the Hegeler Institute. Google BooksEprint.Internet ArchiveEprint. Carus's reply to Peirce's "Reply to the Necessitarians" in the same issue.