Determinism and Fatalism: What's the Difference?

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ughaibu
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:15 pm
@Night Ripper,
Night Ripper;131623 wrote:
The original poster is asking if [causal] determinism implies/reduces to fatalism. I think it does but only if you think the laws of nature are real and causes actually have force rather than being derived in hindsight and abstract.
Again, from the Stanford article about determinism: Fatalism is easily disentangled from determinism, to the extent that one can disentangle mystical forces and gods' wills and foreknowledge (about specific matters) from the notion of natural/causal law.
 
Night Ripper
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:16 pm
@ughaibu,
ughaibu;131620 wrote:
The second sentence, after your quote, reads: When argued for in the third way it is not now commonly referred to as "fatalism" at all, and such arguments will not be discussed here. In short, your source does not back you up, quite the contrary.


That's irrelevant. All I'm arguing is that term "fatalism" commonly implies the definition given in the first sentence of that article. That sentence has nothing to do with what arguments for causal determinism are called.
 
kennethamy
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:17 pm
@Night Ripper,
Night Ripper;131623 wrote:
That's not the kind of fatalism that the article or (99% sure about this judging from context) the original poster is talking about. I just quoted the definition of fatalism from SEP but here's both of them.

The original poster is asking if [causal] determinism implies/reduces to fatalism. I think it does but only if you think the laws of nature are real and causes actually have force rather than being derived in hindsight and abstract.


I am the OP and I did not ask that question. But, in any case, I think that fatalism and determinism are incompatible, and therefore cannot say the same thing. And I think that SEP also holds that. I'll say it one more time: According to fatalism, what we do does not matter to what happens. According to determinism, what we do may matter to what happens. Therefore, fatalism and determinism are incompatible, and therefore they are not the same. QED.
 
Night Ripper
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:19 pm
@kennethamy,
kennethamy;131628 wrote:
I am the OP and I did not ask that question.


No, hue-man is the original poster i.e. the person that started this discussion. His question and his terms, not yours, matter.

He's not using fatalism in the same way you are. So, try to understand what he's really asking.
 
ughaibu
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:20 pm
@Night Ripper,
Night Ripper;131627 wrote:
All I'm arguing is that term "fatalism" commonly implies the definition given in the first sentence of that article.
But the question was asked here, on a philosophy board, vague notions that appear in common usage are not an accurate reflection of what philosophers mean by the terms that they use.
 
Night Ripper
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:22 pm
@ughaibu,
ughaibu;131633 wrote:
But the question was asked here, on a philosophy board, vague notions that appear in common usage are not an accurate reflection of what philosophers mean by the terms that they use.


I meant common usage by philosophers which is why I quoted Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Are you going to argue that's not what fatalism commonly means by philosophers?
 
kennethamy
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:23 pm
@Night Ripper,
Night Ripper;131634 wrote:
I meant common usage by philosophers which is why I quoted Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Are you going to argue that's not what fatalism commonly means by philosophers?


No, but that is not what determinism means.
 
Amperage
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:24 pm
@kennethamy,
kennethamy;131628 wrote:
I am the OP and I did not ask that question. But, in any case, I think that fatalism and determinism are incompatible, and therefore cannot say the same thing. And I think that SEP also holds that. I'll say it one more time: According to fatalism, what we do does not matter to what happens. According to determinism, what we do may matter to what happens. Therefore, fatalism and determinism are incompatible, and therefore they are not the same. QED.



I take fatalism not to mean what we do doesn't not matter to what happens, but that, what we do, we will always do and have no choice but to do; it's already been decided because the decision isn't freely ours, it's our fate. I think it is in this sense that fatalism can be equated to hard determinism
 
ughaibu
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:26 pm
@Night Ripper,
Night Ripper;131634 wrote:
I meant common usage by philosophers which is why I quoted Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Are you going to argue that's not what fatalism commonly means by philosophers?
I dont need to "argue" that position, I have already quoted relevant sentences from the very articles that you have appealed to. Are you contending that the terms fatalism and determinism are interchangeable synonyms?
 
Reconstructo
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:27 pm
@hue-man,
hue-man;129794 wrote:
It appears as if the metaphysical theory of determinism is self-evident.

I generally felt this way for a long time. At the moment I have doubts. Why? Because of Kant's idea that causality is a built-in aspect of human understanding. What if we are evolved to see things in terms of causes and effects? It's possible that this tendency does not correspond to nature.
But maybe it does. Personally, I find room for doubt.
 
Night Ripper
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:29 pm
@ughaibu,
ughaibu;131638 wrote:
Are you contending that the terms fatalism and determinism are interchangeable synonyms?


No, I'm contending that the original poster is right, iff he means that casual determinism implies fatalism, as defined in first sentence of the SEP article.

Fatalism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Of course, only if you think causes aren't abstract and derived in hindsight.
 
ughaibu
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:32 pm
@Night Ripper,
Night Ripper;131641 wrote:
ughaibu;131638 wrote:
Are you contending that the terms fatalism and determinism are interchangeable synonyms?
No. . . .
Okay, the thread's question is: Determinism and Fatalism: What's the difference?
 
Amperage
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:32 pm
@Night Ripper,
Night Ripper;131641 wrote:
Of course, only if you think causes aren't abstract and derived in hindsight.
Not to derail the topic at hand but I really wish either you or Reconstruco would expound upon this. I'm trying to follow what you mean but I guess I'm just missing what your getting at. Are you saying the cause and effect relationship is merely imagined?
 
kennethamy
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:33 pm
@Amperage,
Amperage;131637 wrote:
I take fatalism not to mean what we do doesn't not matter to what happens, but that, what we do, we will always do and have no choice but to do; it's already been decided because the decision isn't freely ours, it's our fate. I think it is in this sense that fatalism can be equated to hard determinism


As I said, fatalism says that it does not matter what we do. Determinism says it sometimes does matter what we do. The fatalist says to the soldier, don't bother to put on the body armor. The determinist says, by all means do bother to put put on the body armor. It may save your life. Are you saying there is no difference? If the soldier has decided to put on his body armor, then his decision makes a difference. Whether he was "free" or not to put on his body armor is a different issue. If you ignore this difference than I agree that fatalism is equated to hard determinism. And, if you ignore the differences between cheese and chocolate, then cheese is equated to chocolate.
 
ughaibu
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:35 pm
@Amperage,
Amperage;131645 wrote:
Are you saying the cause and effect relationship is merely imagined?
Determinism isn't about cause and effect, a non-determined causally complete world is possible.
 
Amperage
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:35 pm
@kennethamy,
kennethamy;131646 wrote:
As I said, fatalism says that it does not matter what we do. Determinism says it sometimes does matter what we do. The fatalist says to the soldier, don't bother to put on the body armor. The determinist says, by all means do bother to put put on the body armor. It may save your life. Are you saying there is no difference? If the soldier has decided to put on his body armor, then his decision makes a difference. Whether he was "free" or not to put on his body armor is a different issue. If you ignore this difference than I agree that fatalism is equated to hard determinism. And, if you ignore the differences between cheese and chocolate, then cheese is equated to chocolate.
No, I most certainly see the distinction you are trying to make.

However I think what you may be overlooking is that whichever the soldier eventually does is what he must do based on causal determinism isn't it?

Can one believe in fatalism and NOT determinism?
 
kennethamy
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:37 pm
@Amperage,
Amperage;131649 wrote:
No, I most certainly see the distinction you are trying to make.


Fine, but you must admit it was a long haul.
 
Fil Albuquerque
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:37 pm
@ughaibu,
ughaibu;131580 wrote:
Where does Chaitin say that?
 
Amperage
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:38 pm
@kennethamy,
kennethamy;131652 wrote:
Fine, but you must admit it was a long haul.

I never disagreed. I agree there is a difference. I think it may depends on what one means by determinism though.
 
ughaibu
 
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2010 07:41 pm
@Fil Albuquerque,
Fil. Albuquerque;131653 wrote:
Okay, thanks. (+4)
 
 

 
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