determinism

In philosophy, the view that every event is an instance of some scientific law of nature; or that every event has at least one cause; or that nature is uniform. The thesis cannot be proved or disproved. Determinism is also the theory that we do not have free will, because our choices and actions are caused.

In antiquity, the theory of determinism was a feature of Stoicism. In Christian theology, the Calvinist doctrine of predestination is deterministic. Quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle lend support to free will.

Hard determinists hold that responsibility for our actions is an illusion. Soft determinists, or compatibilists, hold that causation is not a constraint or compulsion, and to act freely is not to act unpredictably. Indeterminists, or libertarians, hold that the self is outside of, but can intervene in, the causal chain.

The thesis of determinism is often reagrded as a methodological principle or rule of thumb, rather than a true or false statement.