Necessitarianism is a
metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...
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, including
hard determinism, each of which deny
libertarian 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.
The most famous defender of necessitarianism in the history of philosophy is
Spinoza.
Anthony Collins was also known for his defense of necessitarianism. His brief ''Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty'' (1715) was a key statement of the necessitarianist standpoint.
The ''
Century Dictionary
''The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia'' is one of the largest encyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. It was compared favorably with the ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' and frequently consulted for more factual information than woul ...
'' defined it in 1889–91 as belief that the will is not free, but instead subject to external antecedent causes or
natural law
Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...
s of cause and effect.
[
* 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 Books']
Eprint
''Internet Archive'
Eprint
Reprinted ''Collected 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" in ''The Monist'', v. 2, n. 4, July, Paul Carus, ed., 560–582, The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, for the Hegeler Institute. ''Google Books'
Eprint
''Internet Archive'
Eprint
* 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 Books'
Eprint
''Internet Archive'
Eprint
Reprinted ''Collected 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" in ''The Monist'', v. 3, n. 4, July, Paul Carus, ed., 571–622, The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, for the Hegeler Institute. Google Book
Eprint
''Internet Archive'
Eprint
Carus's reply to Peirce's "Reply to the Necessitarians" in the same issue.
See also
*
Determinism
Determinism is the Metaphysics, metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes ov ...
*
Mechanical philosophy
*
Modal logic
Modal logic is a kind of logic used to represent statements about Modality (natural language), necessity and possibility. In philosophy and related fields
it is used as a tool for understanding concepts such as knowledge, obligation, and causality ...
*
Necessity and sufficiency
In logic and mathematics, necessity and sufficiency are terms used to describe a material conditional, conditional or implicational relationship between two Statement (logic), statements. For example, in the Conditional sentence, conditional stat ...
* ''
Ceteris paribus
' (also spelled ') (Classical ) is a Latin phrase, meaning "other things equal"; some other English translations of the phrase are "all other things being equal", "other things held constant", "all else unchanged", and "all else being equal". ...
''
References
External links
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{{Determinism
Determinism
Necessity
Modal metaphysics
Metaphysical principles