Definition

1. Noun:
   • A person who believes in or advocates necessitarianism: A necessitarian is someone who holds the philosophical position that all events, including human actions and choices, are determined by preceding causes and are therefore inevitable. This belief system explicitly rejects the concept of free will.
   • A determinist: In philosophical discourse, "necessitarian" is often used synonymously with a strict determinist, particularly one who argues that free will is an illusion.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • As a committed necessitarian, he argued that every decision we make is the inevitable result of prior genetic and environmental factors.
  • The debate between the libertarian and the necessitarian centered on the existence of moral responsibility.
  • Her necessitarian views left no room for the concept of chance or uncaused choice.

Advanced Usage

• Philosophical Context: The term is primarily used in academic discussions of metaphysics, ethics, and the philosophy of mind. It contrasts with terms like "libertarian" (in the philosophical sense of one who believes in free will) and "compatibilist" (one who believes determinism and free will can coexist).
  • The philosopher's necessitarian framework challenged the very foundation of punitive justice systems.

Variants and Related Words

• Necessitarianism (n): The philosophical doctrine or belief system that denies free will and asserts that all events are causally determined.
  • His thesis provided a robust defense of necessitarianism.
• Necessarian (n): An older or less common variant with the same meaning as "necessitarian."
• Determinist (n): A more general and commonly used synonym for a believer in determinism.

Synonyms

• Determinist: A person who believes that all events are caused by previous events.
• Fatalist: While similar, a fatalist typically believes events are predetermined by fate or destiny, not necessarily by a chain of causal necessity. The terms overlap but are not perfectly identical.

Related Phrases

• Necessitarian doctrine: Refers to the set of beliefs associated with necessitarianism.
  • The necessitarian doctrine was influential in 18th-century thought.
• Necessitarian argument: An argument presented from the perspective of necessitarianism.
  • She presented a powerful necessitarian argument against the possibility of alternate actions.

Noun

1. someone who does not believe the doctrine of free will