noun
- Plural of necessitarian; people who believe that all events are determined by prior causes and that free will does not exist.
Usage: philosophy; formal
Examples
- Necessitarians argue that human choices are ultimately the result of prior physical and mental conditions.
- The debate between necessitarians and free-will advocates has shaped modern philosophy.
- Some necessitarians contend that moral responsibility must be reconceived in a deterministic universe.
- Necessitarians point to scientific laws as evidence that the future is fixed by the past.
- The necessitarians in the seminar challenged the assumption that people have genuine choice.