indeterminism

indeterminism — noun

1. the philosophical claim that people have free will, meaning their decisions and

1.nounC2
Definition

the philosophical claim that people have free will, meaning their decisions and behaviour are not fully set in advance by prior events, conditions, or causes

Example

Without indeterminism, Aisha argued, a judge could never praise a defendant for choosing to tell the truth.

indeterminism as basis for moral responsibility

Professor Okonkwo's lecture on indeterminism compared free will to two open roads at a fork.

Common collocations
  • indeterminism + moral responsibility
  • defend indeterminism
  • argue for indeterminism
  • indeterminism + free will
Synonyms
  • libertarianism

    a narrower philosophical position within indeterminism that insists free will is incompatible with determinism

  • non-determinism

    broader term used in computing and science; less tied to moral philosophy

  • free will

    everyday term for the same core idea; less technical and less formal

Antonyms
  • determinism

    the opposing view that every event, including human choice, is caused by prior events

  • fatalism

    the belief that events are fixed in advance regardless of human effort

Usage Note

Frequently contrasted with 'determinism.' In philosophy, this is the technical label for the view that free will exists; in everyday speech, 'free will' is used instead. Commonly appears with 'moral responsibility' and 'compatibilism' in academic writing.

Common Mistakes

Indeterminism means nothing is decided.
Indeterminism means some things
especially human choices — are not fully decided by prior causes.' — It is a specific philosophical claim about human will, not a general statement about randomness.
Indeterminism and libertarianism are unrelated.
In philosophy, libertarianism is a type of indeterminism focused on free will.
They overlap; libertarianism is a sub-variant of indeterminism.

2. the philosophical view that certain events — such as human decisions or quantum

2.nounC2
Definition

the philosophical view that certain events — such as human decisions or quantum phenomena — are not fully determined by prior causes, meaning that the universe contains genuinely uncaused occurrences

Example

In quantum physics, indeterminism means an electron's exact position at a given moment may have no single cause.

indeterminism in quantum physics context

Rin's physics paper examined whether indeterminism in radioactive decay means that truly random events do occur in nature.

Common collocations
  • quantum indeterminism
  • indeterminism + chance
  • indeterminism + randomness
  • indeterminism in nature
Synonyms
  • indeterminacy

    closely related but describes a state of uncertainty rather than a doctrine; also used in physics (indeterminacy principle)

  • acausality

    rare technical term for the absence of cause-and-effect relations

Antonyms
  • determinism

    the claim that every event has a cause, leaving no room for uncaused events

  • causalism

    the philosophical position that all events are governed by causal laws

Usage Note

In modern philosophy of science, this sense is most visible in discussions of quantum mechanics. Distinguish from sense 1: sense 2 applies to events in general (not just human actions), so the scope is broader. Often paired with 'chance,' 'randomness,' and 'probability.'

Common Mistakes

Indeterminism says nothing has a cause.
Indeterminism says NOT EVERY event has a cause.
It does not deny causality entirely, only universal causality.
Indeterminism is the same as chaos theory.
Indeterminism is about things happening without a cause; chaos theory is about things that follow a cause but are hard to predict.
These are different concepts.

3. the condition of being inherently unfixed or not precisely defined — for example

3.nounC2
Definition

the condition of being inherently unfixed or not precisely defined — for example, a vague word whose boundaries cannot be drawn, an open-ended artwork that invites multiple interpretations, or a boundary between two territories that cannot be clearly established

Example

The indeterminism of the painting's composition made it impossible to say where the figure ended and the background began.

indeterminism of an artwork's composition — quality of being unfixed

Critics pointed to the indeterminism of the theory's central concept, which shifted meaning depending on who used it.

Common collocations
  • indeterminism of + data/results
  • indeterminism in + field/discipline
  • face indeterminism
Synonyms
  • indeterminacy

    near-synonym; used especially in scientific and mathematical contexts

  • vagueness

    highlights imprecision in meaning or boundaries, whereas indeterminism focuses on lack of fixed outcome

  • ambiguity

    usually refers to multiple possible interpretations, not necessarily lack of causal fixity

Antonyms
  • determinacy

    the state of being exactly fixed or predictable

  • clarity

    implies clear boundaries and settled meaning

Usage Note

This sense is broader and less technical than senses 1 and 2. It overlaps with 'indeterminacy' and 'ambiguity.' Unlike the other two senses, it does not necessarily belong to philosophy — it appears in general academic and professional contexts (law, science, literary criticism).

Common Mistakes

Indeterminism is the same as uncertainty.
Uncertainty is about what someone knows; indeterminism is about the nature of the thing itself.
Indeterminism implies the thing is genuinely not fixed, not just unknown.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Indeterminism is the broad philosophical claim that not everything — particularly human choices — is fixed by prior causes. Its direct opposite is determinism, which holds that every event, including decisions, is the unavoidable result of what came before. Libertarianism is a specific branch of indeterminism that adds the claim that free will is incompatible with determinism: if determinism were true, no one could be morally responsible. Fatalism differs from both: it says events are fixed regardless of human effort, but not necessarily through cause-and-effect chains — fate, rather than physics or psychology, is the force. Compatibilism sits apart, arguing that free will and determinism can coexist, so it is neither a form of indeterminism nor a full rejection of it. In practice, when a writer defends indeterminism, they usually mean that human agents could have done otherwise — the classic 'alternate possibilities' claim.

determinism ↗libertarianismfatalism ↗compatibilism

Common collocations

Phrases

  • determinism vs indeterminism
  • the debate over indeterminism
  • a form of indeterminism
  • the problem of indeterminism

Etymology

LatinEnglish

Formed in English in the late 1800s from the Latin prefix 'in-' (meaning 'not') attached to 'determinism,' which itself comes from Latin 'determinare' (to set boundaries or fix limits). The word was created as a direct opposite to 'determinism' during 19th-century philosophical debates about free will and moral responsibility.

First known use

1874

1874, in the meaning defined at sense 1a