- The doctrine that all events are predetermined by fate and are therefore unalterable.
- Acceptance of the belief that all events are predetermined and inevitable.
fatalistic fa'tal·is'tic adj.
fatalistically fa'tal·is'ti·cal·ly adv.
Dictionary:
fa·tal·ism (fāt'l-ĭz'əm) ![]() |
| Philosophy Dictionary: fatalism |
The doctrine that what will be will be, or that human action has no influence on events. ‘Either a bullet has my number on it or it does not; if it does, then there is no point taking precautions for it will kill me anyhow; if it does not then there is no point taking precautions for it is not going to kill me; hence either way there is no point taking precautions.’ The dilemma ignores the highly likely possibility that whether the bullet has your number on it depends on whether you take precautions. Fatalism is wrongly confused with determinism, which by itself carries no implications that human action is ineffectual.
| Word Tutor: fatalism |
She was not convinced that fatalism was a belief that she could embrace.
| Wikipedia: Fatalism |
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| Certainty series |
| Agnosticism Belief Certainty Determinism Doubt Epistemology Justification Estimation Fallibilism Fatalism Nihilism Probability Solipsism Uncertainty |
| Look up fatalism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate or inevitable predetermination.
Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:
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While the terms are often used interchangeably, fatalism, determinism, and predestination are discrete in emphasizing different aspects of the futility of human will or the foreordination of destiny. However, all these doctrines share common ground.
Determinists generally agree that human actions affect the future but, because the future is predetermined, human action is just part of the overall cause. Their view does not accentuate a "submission" to fate, whereas fatalists stress an acceptance of all events as inevitable. In other words, determinists believe the future is fixed because of absolute causality, whereas fatalists and many predestinarians think the future is ineluctable despite causality.
Therefore, in determinism, if the past were different, the present and future would also differ. For fatalists, such a question is negligible, since no past could have happened other than the one that has happened.
Fatalism is a broader term than determinism. The presence of history indeterminisms/chances, i.e. events that could not be predicted by sole knowledge of other events, does not exclude fatalism. Necessity (such as a law of nature) will happen just as inevitably as a chance—both can be imagined as sovereign.
One ancient argument for fatalism, called the idle argument,[3] went like this:
While the idle argument applies fatalism on the effect side (i.e., the recovery from illness), it does not apply fatalism to the cause side. Literalist fatalists apply it to both sides of the cause and effect. While the fact that you will recover or not is left to fate, fatalists believe it is also pre-determined whether or not you will call the doctor.
The logical argument for fatalism is one that depends not on causation or physical circumstances but rather argues based on logical necessity. There are numerous versions of this argument, but the most famous are by Aristotle[4] and Richard Taylor[5]. These have been objected to and elaborated on[6] but very few people accept them.
The key idea of logical fatalism is that there is a body of true propositions (statements) about what is going to happen, and these are true regardless of when they are made. So, for example, if it is true today that tomorrow there will be a sea battle, then there cannot fail to be a sea battle tomorrow, since otherwise it would be not be true today that such a battle will take place.
The argument relies heavily on the principle of bivalence, the idea that any proposition is either true or false. As a result of this principle, if it is not false that there will be a sea battle, then it is true; there is no in-between. However, rejecting the principle of bivalence—perhaps by saying that the truth of a proposition about the future is indeterminate—is a controversial view, since the principle is an accepted part of classical logic.
Another problem with logical fatalism is that first you must accept that there is a timeless set of all propositions which exist without being proposed by anyone in particular. Constructivists (a school of thought in logic and maths) would argue that this is not the case, and that propositions only exist when they are constructed, or expressed.
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| Translations: Fatalism |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - fatalisme, skæbnetro
Nederlands (Dutch)
fatalisme (idee dat alles voorbestemd is)
Français (French)
n. - fatalisme
Deutsch (German)
n. - Fatalismus, Glaube an Vorherbestimmung
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μοιρολατρία, φαταλισμός
Português (Portuguese)
n. - fatalismo (m)
Español (Spanish)
n. - fatalismo
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fatalism
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
宿命论
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 宿命論
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 운명론 , 숙명론, 운명관
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) القدريه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - פטאליזם, פטאליות, אמונה בכך שהכל נקבע מראש ולכן בלתי-נמנע, אי-אמונה ביכולת לשנות את מהלך הדברים
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| fatalistic | |
| lazy sophism (philosophy) | |
| Fièvre (1921 Drama Film) |
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