Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or pertaining to necessity or to necessitarianism: opposed to libertarian.
- noun One who maintains the doctrine of philosophical necessity, in opposition to that of the freedom of the will: opposed to libertarian.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the doctrine of philosophical necessity in regard to the origin and existence of things, especially as applied to the actings or choices of the will; -- opposed to
libertarian . - noun One who holds to the doctrine of necessitarianism.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
necessarian - noun One who maintains the doctrine of philosophical necessity, in opposition to that of freedom of the will: opposed to libertarian. (The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911).
- adjective Of or pertaining to necessity or necessitarianism: opposed to libertarian. The Arminian has entangled the Calvinist, the Calvinist has entangled the Arminian, in a labyrinth of contradictions. The advocate of free-will appeals to conscience and instinct — to an a priori sense of what ought in equity to be. The necessitarian falls back upon the experienced reality of facts. Froude, Calvinism. (The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone who does not believe the doctrine of free will
Etymologies
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Examples
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But we have clearly shown, we trust, that the grand demonstration of the necessitarian is a sophism, whose apparent force is owing to a variety of causes: — First, it seeks out, and lays its foundation in, a false psychology; identifying the feelings, or affections, and the will.
A Theodicy, or, Vindication of the Divine Glory Albert Taylor Bledsoe 1843
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I think this necessitarian or deterministic conception of design raises problems.
Blast From the Past 2010
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An essentialist, necessitarian, and neo-Stoic pessimist, Schopenhauer is quick to separate his inquiry from theories of "liberty" and "rights," which "only refers to an ability, that is, precisely to the absence of physical obstacles to the actions of the animal" (Schopenhauer 4).
The Melancholic Gift: Freedom in Nineteenth-Century Philosophy and Fiction 2008
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Furthermore, the necessitarian (like Spinoza) is forced to deny a number of (to Clarke) obvious points, including that things could be different than they are, that there are final causes in the universe, and that there is any variety of finite things in the universe (because an infinite, unfree cause can produce only infinite effects).
Samuel Clarke Vailati, Ezio 2009
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When al-Ghazâlî writes that the connection between a cause and its effect is not necessary he attacks Avicenna's necessitarian ontology not his secondary causality.
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Plainly enough, non-theists and necessitarian theists disagree about the layout of logical space, i.e., the space of possible worlds.
Ontological Arguments Oppy, Graham 2007
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By the time Chatton was writing, it was quite common to present a basic fatalist or necessitarian argument to show that God's foreknowledge, which seems deeply connected to his providence, is not consistent with future contingent things and events.
Walter Chatton Keele, Rondo 2007
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She was also a “necessitarian,” denying free will in favor of the controlling effect of social and educational contitions.
American Connections James Burke 2007
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She was also a “necessitarian,” denying free will in favor of the controlling effect of social and educational contitions.
American Connections James Burke 2007
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Evidently, for Spinoza, strict necessitarian determinism is consistent with a genuine distinction between action and passion, between doing and suffering an act.
Spinoza's Physical Theory Manning, Richard 2006
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