necessitarianism

American  

[nuh-ses-i-tair-ee-uh-niz-uhm] / nəˌsɛs ɪˈtɛər i əˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. the doctrine that all events, including acts of the will, are determined by antecedent causes; determinism.

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necessitarianism British  

/ ˌnɛsɪˈsɛərɪəˌnɪzəm, nɪˌsɛsɪˈtɛərɪəˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. philosophy another word for determinism Compare libertarian

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Other Word Forms

• necessitarian noun

Etymology

Origin of necessitarianism

First recorded in 1850–55; necessitarian + -ism

Example Sentences

Abelard's necessitarianism and Gilbert's Spinozism, if Bernard understood them right, were equally impossible theology, and the Church could by no evasion escape the necessity of condemning both.

From Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres by Adams, Henry

But then the Daily News suddenly lights up the gloom of necessitarianism with bright beams of hope.

From Culture and Anarchy by Arnold, Matthew

For here comes in our faith in the staunch mechanical pursuit of a fixed object, and covers itself with that imposing and colossal necessitarianism of The Times which we have before noticed.

From Culture and Anarchy by Arnold, Matthew

But the political reconstruction which he proposes is too much determined by this old nightmare of necessitarianism.

From What I Saw in America by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)

There is, we must confess, a good deal of such sophistry to-day in the use of arguments drawn from the current philosophy of necessitarianism and the idea of heredity.

From St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Vol. I A Practical Exposition by Gore, Charles