Necessitarianism is a
metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
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'' 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 ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...
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'
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Carus's reply to Peirce's "Reply to the Necessitarians" in the same issue.
See also
*
Determinism
Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and cons ...
*
Hard determinism
*
Mechanical philosophy
The mechanical philosophy is a form of natural philosophy which compares the universe to a large-scale mechanism (i.e. a machine). The mechanical philosophy is associated with the scientific revolution of early modern Europe. One of the first expo ...
*
Modal logic
Modal logic is a collection of formal systems developed to represent statements about necessity and possibility. It plays a major role in philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, and natural language semantics. Modal logics extend ot ...
*
Necessity and sufficiency
* ''
Ceteris paribus
' (also spelled '; () 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". A statement ...
''
References
External links
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{{Determinism
Determinism
Necessity
Metaphysical theories