Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Determinism |
DeterminismNoun1. A philosophical doctrine holding that all events are inevitable consequences of antecedent sufficient causes; often understood as denying the possibility of free will. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "determinism" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1891. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Determinism is the philosophical doctrine that claims that all behavior results from preceding events or natural causes. It is result of the two preceding ideas: Materialism and Causality. For example, a proponent of determinism would say that the relentless laws of physics (as applied to neurons in the brain of the reader) caused the reader to read this article today.
Proponents of determinism sometimes claim that free will is an illusion, and that beings are no more able to control matter with their minds than any other soulless matter (such as a robot) can. One objection to determinism is that a universe in which people do not really make their own choices has no morality.
Determinism and free will are often, but not always, seen as mutually exclusive. The idea that they might be compatible (or that free will even requires determinism) is called Compatibilism.
It should be noted that even belief in a soul is not a solution, unless the soul itself behaves non-deterministically.
Much of a belief in determinism was inspired by Newtonian physics in which the universe was seen as a collection of billiard balls interacting according to the laws of physics. In this view, once the initial conditions of the universe were known, the behavior of the universe for all time would be determined. However, some (but not all) interpretations of quantum mechanics assert that the universe is non-deterministic, meaning that some events (such as when a radioactive atom decays) do not have immediate causes.
However, even non-deterministic interpretations of quantum mechanics do not necessarily allow for free will. (After all, a robot could be made to use quantum uncertainties to "decide what to do", but this would clearly not show that the robot had free will.) Although non-determistic interpretations of quantum mechanics allow for uncaused events, these events are statistically random and unaffected by human cognition. See also block time for an example of how the universe can be seen to be deterministic regardless of how the laws of physics operate within it.
See also
- Causality
- Free will
- Scientific determinism
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Determinism."
Crosswords: Determinism |
| English words defined with "determinism": Jansenism. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Determinism" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Swedish (determinism, necessitarianism). |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Determinism" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Determinism" is used about 166 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 166 | 24,220 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "determinism": non-determinism, super-determinism. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "determinism"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | determinizëm (necessitarianism). (various references) | |
Arabic | حتمي (necessary), الحتمية مذهب دينى. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | детерминизъм (necessitarianism). (various references) | |
Chinese | 决定论. (various references) | |
Czech | determinismus. (various references) | |
Danish | determinisme. (various references) | |
Dutch | determinismus, determinisme. (various references) | |
French | déterminisme. (various references) | |
German | determinismus. (various references) | |
Greek | αιτιοκρατία. (various references) | |
Hungarian | determinizmus (necessitarianism). (various references) | |
Italian | determinismo. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 決定論 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | けっていろん. (various references) | |
Korean | 결정론 (deterministic). (various references) | |
Manx | oyraghys (materialism). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eterminismday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | determinismo (necessitarianism). (various references) | |
Russian | детерминизм (necessitarianism). (various references) | |
Spanish | determinismo (necessitarianism). (various references) | |
Swedish | determinism (necessitarianism). (various references) | |
Turkish | determinizm, kaçınılmaz sona inanma. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | детермінізм (necessitarianism). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "determinism": determinisms. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "determinism": indeterminism. (additional references) | |
Words containing "determinism": indeterminisms. (additional references) | |
| |
"Determinism" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: determinals, exterminism, metermarism. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "determinism" (pronounced duter"muni'zum) |
| 7 | -m u n i' z u m | feminism, humanism. |
| 6 | -u n i' z u m | abolitionism, agrarianism, anachronism, antagonism, authoritarianism, mechanism, microorganism, obstructionism, organism, paganism, parkinsonism, perfectionism, protectionism, puritanism, chauvinism, communism, creationism, egalitarianism, expansionism, expressionism, hedonism, hooliganism, illusionism, impressionism, interventionism, isolationism, lesbianism, republicanism, revisionism, satanism, sectarianism, tokenism, totalitarianism, unionism, vegetarianism. |
| 5 | -n i' z u m | modernism, monism, opportunism. |
| 4 | -i' z u m | absenteeism, absolutism, activism, adventurism, alcoholism, altruism, amateurism, aneurism, animism, aphorism, astigmatism, atavism, atheism, autism, baptism, barbarism, bilingualism, bolshevism, boosterism, botulism, mercantilism, mesmerism, metabolism, methodism, militarism, minimalism, monasticism, monetarism, monotheism, moralism, multiculturalism, multilateralism, mutualism, mysticism, narcissism, nationalism, nativism, naturalism, negativism, nepotism, neutralism, nihilism, optimism, ostracism, overoptimism, pacifism, parallelism, parochialism, pastoralism, paternalism, patriotism, pessimism, pharisaism, pietism, plagiarism, pluralism, polymorphism, polytheism, populism, positivism, pragmatism, professionalism, provincialism, racialism, racism, radicalism, realism, cannibalism, capitalism, catechism, centralism, classicism, collectivism, colonialism, commercialism, conservatism, consumerism, corporatism, counterterrorism, criticism, cronyism, cubism, cynicism, dandyism, defeatism, deism, despotism, diamagnetism, diastrophism, dimorphism, dogmatism, Druidism, dualism, dwarfism, dynamism, egoism, egotism, electromagnetism, elitism, embolism, emotionalism, empiricism, entrepreneurialism, environmentalism, ergotism, eroticism, escapism, ethnocentrism, euphemism, evangelism, extremism, factionalism, fanaticism, fascism, fatalism, favoritism, federalism, ferromagnetism, fetishism, feudalism, formalism, fundamentalism, futurism, geotropism, gnosticism, gradualism, helotism, heroism, hypnotism, idealism, imperialism, incrementalism, individualism, intellectualism, internationalism, Irredentism, isomorphism, jingoism, journalism, leftism, legalism, liberalism, lyricism, magnetism, mannerism, masochism, materialism, recidivism, relativism, rheumatism, romanticism, sadism, secularism, sensationalism, separatism, sexism, skepticism, socialism, statism, stoicism, supernaturalism, surrealism, symbolism, synergism, territorialism, terrorism, theism, tourism, truism, vandalism, vigilantism, voluntarism, volunteerism, voyeurism. |
| 3 | -z u m | bosom, microcosm, neoplasm, orgasm, phantasm, prism, careerism, chasm, cytoplasm, enthusiasm, iconoclasm, ism, sarcasm, schism, spasm. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-e-i-i-m-m-n-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: ministered. | |
-2 letters: eremitism, mistermed. | |
-3 letters: demerits, dimerism, dimeters, diriment, disinter, endemism, enmities, immenser, immersed, inditers, inserted, interims, itemised, meristem, midterms, minister, misenter, misinter, mistimed, nerdiest, niteries, nitrides, reminted, resident, sediment, siderite, simmered, sintered, stemmier, trendies. | |
-4 letters: deities, dements, demerit, deniers, destine, diester, dieters, dimeter, dimmers, dimmest, dirties, ditsier, emeriti, emetins, endites, entires, entries, ermined. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-e-i-i-m-m-n-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: determinisms. | |
+2 letters: indeterminism. | |
+3 letters: indeterminisms. | |
+4 letters: maladministered. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
