Login
Login

Historical determinism

{{Short description|Philosophical view that events are entirely determined by history}}

{{citations|date=February 2023}}

{{for|theory that events in history are not defined by present standards|Historism}}

Historical determinism is the belief that events in history are entirely determined or constrained by various prior forces and, therefore, in a certain sense, inevitable. It is the philosophical view of determinism applied to the process or direction by which history unfolds. Historical determinism places the cause of the event behind it.

The concept of determinism appeared in the 19th century. The main idea is that certain factors determine the existence of humans and therefore limit the scope of their free will. In history, this is an approach that holds that history is intrinsically meaningful. Used as a pejorative, it is normally meant to designate a rigid finalist or mechanist conception of historical unfolding that makes the future appear as an inevitable and predetermined result of the past.

See also

{{div col}}

{{div col end}}

Bibliography

{{refbegin|2}}

  • {{cite journal|last=Adcock|first=Robert|year=2007|title=Who's Afraid of Determinism? The Ambivalence of Macro-Historical Inquiry|journal=Journal of the Philosophy of History|volume=1|issue=3|pages=346–364|doi=10.1163/187226307X229407}}
  • {{cite journal|last1=Banerjee|first1=Abhijit V.|last2=Duflo|first2=Esther|title=Under the Thumb of History? Political institutions and the Scope for Action|journal=Annual Review of Economics|year=2014 |volume=6|issue=1|pages=951–971|doi=10.1146/annurev-economics-080213-041110|s2cid=154623830 |issn=1941-1391|url=http://www.nber.org/papers/w19848.pdf }}
  • {{cite journal|last1=Brites Pereira|first1=Luis|last2=Luiz|first2=John Manuel|year=2019|title=Institutional drivers, historical determinism, and economic development in Mozambique|journal=International Journal of Emerging Markets|volume=15|issue=4|pages=767–789|doi=10.1108/ijoem-01-2019-0024|s2cid=210054631 |url=http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/86931/2/2Revised-Paper-IJOEM%20SRO.pdf }}
  • {{cite book|last=Dray|first=William H.|author-link=William Herbert Dray|year=1993|orig-year=1964|chapter=Historical Determinism|title=Philosophy of History|url=https://archive.org/details/philosophyofhist0000dray/|publisher=Prentice Hall|pages=114–140|lccn=92-24133|isbn=0-13-012816-3}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Gurpegui|first=José Antonio|year=2018|title=Historical Determinism in the 1812 Constitutions of the United States and Spain|journal=Complutense Journal of English Studies|volume=26|pages=9–25|issn=2386-3935|doi=10.5209/cjes.62380|doi-access=free}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Grünbaum|first=Adolf|author-link=Adolf Grünbaum|year=1956|title=Historical Determinism, Social Activism, and Predictions in the Social Sciences|journal=British Journal for the Philosophy of Science|volume=7|issue=27|pages=236–240|doi=10.1093/bjps/VII.27.236|issn=1464-3537}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Hook|first=Sidney|author-link=Sidney Hook|title=Historical Determinism and Political Fiat in Soviet Communism|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume=99|issue=1|date=27 January 1955|pages=1–10|issn=0003-049X|jstor=3143687}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Hunt|first=Ronald J.|year=1985|title=Marxism's Unseen Hand: Friedrich Engels & the Rise of Historical Determinism|journal=Polity|volume=18|issue=2|pages=340–349|doi=10.2307/3234954|jstor=3234954|s2cid=201392052 }}
  • {{cite journal|last=Martin|first=Ruhr|year=1995|title=Cohen versus Gouldner: historical materialism as a determinism|journal=South African Journal of Sociology|volume=26|issue=1|pages=26–34|doi=10.1080/02580144.1995.10431711 }}
  • {{cite journal|last1=Misztal|first1=Barbara|last2=Freundlieb|first2=Dieter|date=August 2003|title=The Curious Historical Determinism of Randall Collins|journal=European Journal of Sociology|volume=44|issue=2|pages=247–269|doi=10.1017/S0003975603001267|s2cid=144914434 }}
  • {{cite journal|last=Nagel|first=Ernest|author-link=Ernest Nagel|date=March 1960|title=Determinism in History|journal=Philosophy and Phenomenological Research|volume=20|issue=3|pages=291–317|doi=10.2307/2105051 |jstor=2105051|issn=1933-1592}}

{{refend}}

External links

  • {{cite web|url=https://ismbook.com/ism-list/#historical-determinism|title=Historical determinism|website=ISM book|author=Philo|date=22 August 2022 }}

{{determinism}}

{{historiography}}

Category:Determinism

Category:Marxism

Category:Political theories

Category:Theories of history

{{poli-philo-stub}}