What is Determinism?
[[File:Bled (9664110474).jpg|thumb|Many philosophical theories of determinism frame themselves with the idea that reality follows a sort of predetermined path.]] In [[philosophy]], '''determinism''' is the [[thesis]] that there are conditions that make future events happen the way they happen. Today, the term is mostly used in [[natural philosophy]]: there are natural laws and [[causality]] that govern certain aspects of [[nature]]. Some of those laws are not [[probability|probabilistic]], they apply all the time. The opposite position to this idea is called [[indeterminism]]. If there are really conditions that cause future events to be uniquely determined in advance, this will cause problems supporting the idea that there is [[free will]]. Other ideas that need the thesis of determinism are called [[fatalism]] and [[predestination]]. ==Famous people who supported the idea== *[[Alfred Jules Ayer]] (1910–1989) *[[Arthur Schopenhauer]] (1788-1860) *[[Georg Büchner]] (1813–1837) *[[Albert Einstein]] (1879–1955) *[[Sigmund Freud]] (1856–1939) *[[Thomas Hobbes]] (1588–1679) *[[Paul Thiry d'Holbach]] (1723–1789) *[[David Hume]] (1711–1776) *[[William James]] (1842–1910) *[[Pierre-Simon Laplace]] (1749–1827) *[[John Locke]] (1632–1704) *[[Marshall McLuhan]] (1911–1980) *[[Julien Offray de La Mettrie]] (1709–1751) *[[John Stuart Mill]] (1806–1873) *[[Max Planck]] (1858–1947) *[[Baruch Spinoza|Baruch de Spinoza]] (1632–1677) ==Related pages== *[[Deterministic algorithm]] *[[Deterministic chaos]] *[[Deterministic system]] *[[Cultural determinism]] [[Category:Determinism|*]] {{stub}} {{Determinism}} {{philosophy topics}} {{Metaphysics}} {{authority control}}