Determinism

From Geography

Theories of determinism are about decisions and actions being just effects, on the contrary theories of freedom are about there being something more or something else than effects. (Honderich 2005, p. 8) To give just a general meaning of the term determinism is almost impossible, as there are many different definitions in all sorts of doctrines. However a more general world view on determinism is the view that every event has a cause and that everything in the universe is dependent on and governed by causal laws, that it is no more than a chain of events following one after another according to these laws. It is the believe that all of human actions are the result of antecedent factors or causes. Determinists therefore believe that all events, including human actions, are predetermined. Determinism is often considered incompatible with free will (incompatibilist), however some believe that it is compatible or even necessary for free will to be able to exist (compatibilist).

In every discipline, determinism has a diffrent meaning. you can say that the meaning of determninism is dependend on the context. in that case, there are several types of determinism. for example:

Historical determinism: Historical determinism is a way of thinking, that claims that the future will be determined of events happened in the past. This way of thinking will always be related to Karl Marx theories. He claimed that it are not the great powerful people that determine history, history is also not determined by random events. It is determined by the fundamental structure of sociëty (Mandel,n.d.).

Environmental determinism Environmental determinism relies on a approach that human behaviour is determined by their own environment. People are bound by their environment en the climate that environment has. People have to adjust their behaviour to their environment. Sociëties are created by human behaviour, so even sociëties are determined by the environment and climate. Other definitions for environmental determinism are geographical determinism and climatic determinism.

Linguistic determinism Linguistic determinism was a theory by Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is an approach that applies the term 'determinism' to language. The structure of a language determines the way in which the speakers of the language see the world. It is the idea that language shapes thought.

References

Honderich, T. (2005). On determinism and Freedom. Edinburgh University Press Ltd, Edinburgh.

Mandel, E. Internet archief, gevonden op 25 oktober op http://www.ernestmandel.org/nl/werken/txt/1980/inleidingmarxisme/17.htm

http://mb-soft.com/believe/text/determin.htm (Accessed 16 October 2010)

Published by Ivar le Loux & Jorg Schröder

Edited by Stef Tomesen --StefTomesen 13:14, 25 October 2012 (CEST)