by Krystle Hernandez

Created on: March 03, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Determinism is a philosophical notion that states that every event, including human cognition, decision and action, is casually determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. The notion that there is at any instant exactly one physically possible future implies that time is linear and the future is already determined. The philosophy does not address the question of the existence of uncaused, random, or certain events and overall, it denies the possibility of the "unknown."

For those who believe in the concept of determinism, free will is only an illusion. Determinism is based on the rule of cause and effect, meaning all human history is an inevitable response to events that occurred long before humanity had the capability to record these events.

It is a common misconception that determinism maintains that that individuals have no influence on their futures, however, determinists believe that the level to which human beings have influence on the course of their lives is dependent on present and past occurrences.

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