necessarianism

Noun

necessarianism (uncountable)

1. (metaphysics) An extreme form of determinism that holds that all phenomena, including the will, are subject to immutable rules of cause and effect; necessitarianism.
   • Scholars working on Joseph Priestley have begun to take a proper measure of his philosophical position, known as “necessarianism,” a psychological determinism based on the teachings of the midcentury physician and theologian David Hartley—with, in Priestley′s own case, the addition of materialism....1995, Denis G. Paz, Nineteenth-Century English Religious Traditions: Retrospect and Prospect, page 106
   • While not acceptable to all Unitarians, the philosophical determinism known as Necessarianism, identified with Hartley and Priestley, also proved persuasive to many, both ministers and laymen.2000, R. K. Webb, “6: Miracles in English Unitarian Thought”, in Mark S. Micale, Robert L. Dietle, editors, Enlightenment, Passion, Modernity: Historical Essays in European Thought and Culture, page...