Fatalism

Fatalism, doctrine that all events occur according to a fixed and inevitable destiny that is neither controlled nor affected by the individual will. Fatalism is frequently confused with determinism, the doctrine that events are determined by the events that precede them. According to fatalism, however, preceding events have no causal connection with the events that follow. A fated event takes place not according to a natural law but in accordance with some mysterious decree issued by some mysterious power, perhaps ages before. Determinism, in its tenet that every event has its determining conditions in its immediate antecedents, which may include the human will, is consistent with a belief in the efficacy of the human will, but fatalism is not.

Both fatalism and determinism, thus distinguished from each other, should likewise be distinguished from predestination. Predestination is determination plus the belief in a supernatural power that has established a determining natural sequence of causes. Fatalism is a belief in a supernatural power that predetermines without recourse to natural order.

Fatalism appeared among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans and is particularly prevalent today among Muslims. In the modern West, though, it has retained a degree of acceptance only where science has not had a controlling influence in developing the doctrine of causality.