According to fatalism, there is a predetermination of events that is impossible to avoid.
Fatalism is a belief that holds that all events occur by fate or by a predetermination that cannot be avoided . According to fatalism, events go beyond human will.
The human being , in this framework, is subject to forces superior to or independent of him . These forces, which can be natural or supernatural, determine the events without anyone being able to avoid it.
It is important to mention that fatalism does not exclude causality in the future of things. Fate can even be understood as a causal chain of events , where causes are linked to each other and produce effects on others.
Fatalism and philosophy
Arguments against fatalism have been raised from various philosophical currents. It has been postulated, for example, that if the premises of fatalism were true, there would be no need to act (since the consequences of actions would depend on destiny and not on individuals) and morality would not exist (if destiny were responsible). of the acts, the subjects would not have any responsibility).
Let's look at these arguments in more detail. First we have the lazy argument , so called because laziness is the destination to which a path of total inactivity leads us. Ancient morality maintains among its essential principles the idea that certain things are linked to our actions, that they depend on it. This has been affirmed by different schools of philosophy throughout history.
This argument does not accept that everything depends on destiny, since in that case human beings would live in immorality , as well as laziness. We should also mention the moral argument , which focuses precisely on the apparent opposition of fatalism to morality. He wonders how to hold an individual responsible for his actions if they were caused by fate itself. Furthermore, it invalidates both sanctions and praise and honors , since none of that should be directed at people.
If everything really depended on fate, our judicial system would not be able to convict criminals, because rapes, murders and all other despicable acts would be the work of fate and not the individuals who carried them out.
It is common for fatalism to be associated with the negative, although this meaning has nothing to do with the etymology of the term.
The resignation
Fatalism is also called the attitude of someone who resigns themselves to reality because they do not believe that it is possible to modify the development of adverse situations. The fatalist, therefore, does not make an effort to change any scenario , convinced of the invariable nature of contingencies.
Suppose a man loses his job . Due to the difficult economic outlook, he thinks that no matter how hard he looks for a new job, he will never get one. He also maintains that if he starts a business it will surely fail. This fatalism leads him to adopt a passive attitude, when he could intervene to improve his position .
This type of attitude, which we can identify with fatalism, is also described using the term pessimism , although there are different nuances. While the latter is defined as the tendency to see the less favorable side of events, fatalism is not necessarily linked to negative outcomes, but rather to their inevitable nature.
Fatalism and negativity
It is important to study its etymology to understand that fatalism is not a negative vision of the future but, as expressed above, the idea that our actions cannot modify the chain of events that surround us because their causes are independent of our will .
The root of fatalism is fatum , which in Latin is defined as "destiny"; We should not confuse this with the meanings we give to the term fatal when we understand it as something "bad."