Determinism facts for kids

Determinism is a big idea that says everything that happens, including our choices, is already decided by things that happened before. Imagine a long chain reaction: one event causes the next, and so on. This means that if you knew everything about the past, you could predict the future perfectly.

This idea is often discussed in science. Scientists look for natural laws and cause-and-effect relationships. Some of these laws always apply and don't involve chance. The opposite idea, that things can happen randomly, is called indeterminism.

If everything is already decided, it makes people wonder if we truly have free will – the ability to choose for ourselves. Other ideas, like fatalism and predestination, are similar to determinism because they also suggest your future is already set.

Who Believed in Determinism?

Many famous thinkers and scientists have supported the idea of determinism. They believed that events are not random but are caused by earlier events. Here are some of them:

• Alfred Jules Ayer (1910–1989)
• Georg Büchner (1813–1837)
• Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
• Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
• Paul Thiry d'Holbach (1723–1789)
• David Hume (1711–1776)
• William James (1842–1910)
• Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827)
• John Locke (1632–1704)
• Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
• Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709–1751)
• John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
• Max Planck (1858–1947)
• Baruch de Spinoza (1632–1677)

Related Topics

• Deterministic algorithm: This is a type of computer program that always produces the same output for the same input. It's predictable.
• Deterministic chaos: This is a complex idea where even simple rules can lead to very unpredictable-looking results, but they are still technically determined.

Images for kids

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  Nature and nurture interact in humans.

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  Some people think technology, like mobile phones, shapes human civilization the most.

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  In Conway's Game of Life, simple rules create patterns that seem "alive."

See also

In Spanish: Determinismo para niños