-ism -ism -ism

causalism — behavior and actions are the result of previous mental states, such as beliefs, desires, or intentions, rather than a present conscious will guiding one’s actions

determinism — every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences

fatalism — the subjugation of all events or actions to fate or inevitable predetermination; in variations:

  1. That free will does not exist, meaning therefore that history has progressed in the only manner possible. This belief is very similar to determinism.
  2. That actions are free, but nevertheless work toward an inevitable end. This belief is very similar to compatibilist predestination.
  3. That acceptance is appropriate, rather than resistance against inevitability. This belief is very similar to defeatism.

libertarianism — human beings possess free will, that free will is incompatible with determinism, and that determinism is false

voluntarism — the will is superior to the intellect and to emotion

compatibilism — free will and determinism are compatible ideas

necessitarianism — denies all mere possibility; there is exactly one way for the world to be

optimism — we live in the best of all possible worlds

(this all started with my clicking on necessitarianism and continued with some free hypertext and thought association, which led to Blake once via Democritus and Newton, and Voltaire twice via Blake then Leibniz and also led to the discovery of a demon that sounds very much like a god)

This entry was posted in language, philosophy/religion and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to -ism -ism -ism

  1. Adam says:

    You should also look up the differences between Calvinism and Hobbesian philosophy/theology. It makes the comic strip even more amusing.

  2. admin says:

    I remember “nasty, brutish, and short”… I’ll have to refresh my memory further than that. 🙂

Comments are closed.