Talk:Determinism

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Determinism article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article.

Add new text under old text. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help. Start a new topic Assume good faith Be polite and avoid personal attacks Be welcoming to newcomers Seek dispute resolution if needed Article policies Neutral point of view No original research Verifiability

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4Auto-archiving period: 12 months

This  level-4 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Philosophy: Metaphysics / Science High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Associated task forces: /  Metaphysics Philosophy of science Physics High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Physics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Physics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PhysicsWikipedia:WikiProject PhysicsTemplate:WikiProject Physicsphysics High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Psychology High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Psychology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Psychology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PsychologyWikipedia:WikiProject PsychologyTemplate:WikiProject Psychologypsychology High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Religion High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Religion, a project to improve Wikipedia's articles on Religion-related subjects. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the wikiproject page for more details.ReligionWikipedia:WikiProject ReligionTemplate:WikiProject ReligionReligion High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Science High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Science, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Science on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ScienceWikipedia:WikiProject ScienceTemplate:WikiProject Sciencescience High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Time High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Time, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Time on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TimeWikipedia:WikiProject TimeTemplate:WikiProject TimeTime High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

}}

This article is substantially duplicated in one or more external publications. Since these publication(s) copied Wikipedia, rather than the reverse, please do not flag this article as a copyright violation of the following sources: Surhone, L. M., Timpledon, M. T., & Marseken, S. F. (2010), Technological determinism: Determinism, reductionism, Thorstein Veblen, inevitability thesis, hegemony, compatibilism and incompatibilism, Betascript{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Miller, F. P., Vandome, A. F., & McBrewster, J. (2009), Libertarianism (metaphysics): Free will, determinism, metaphysics, compatibilism and incompatibilism, Robert Nozick, Carl Ginet, Harry Frankfurt, Daniel Dennett, Peter van Inwagen, Robert Kane (philosopher), Galen Strawson, Alphascript Publishing{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

I liked the headline in Biology for Modern Perspectives in this article the best. I wish some one would expand it. I think it is interesting because it says that you can't predict what you will do even if you were set in a controlled environment.

Most references contain some kind of quotation. This is unnecessary, as the point of the reference is to point the reader to the information. Adding a quotation is both unnecessary, and added an extreme amount of bloat to the article. Adding details to a citation should be used sparingly, and quotations should either be placed in the body text, so that they can be read by a user, or should be eliminated, since the citation points in the direction of the quote.

I would request permission to eliminate the unnecessary quotations, and please, do better. AlmostHalfOkay (talk) 01:58, 15 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

The Bibliography is also absolutely out of date. Either everything cited in the references needs to be cited in the bibliography, or the references should stand alone. There is no benefit to having an article citing more than 50 sources, and only having 11 sources in the bibliography. If you add a source, please add it to the bibliography, or else, please delete the bibliography. AlmostHalfOkay (talk) 02:06, 15 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

Short quotations that aid in verifying that the content matches the source are ok. I agree that this article is way overboard. The article also has 'hidden content', stuff only in the footnotes that are not quotes and some are not even sourced.

As for the mix of citation formats, this is almost inevitable in my experience. Editors have different experiences and tools. It's much more important to have good references than pure consistency. Anyway I wait your improvements. Johnjbarton (talk) 02:23, 15 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

I agree that having different citation formats is inevitable. I don't care so much about that. One of the main ways I contribute is by trying to reorganize citations to make them more standardized. It's ok if citations aren't perfect, especially if you don't know how to cite something. Doing your best is good enough, rather, I just think that on an organizational level, the bibliography is only of minor assistance, since it is not citing everything used. I'd argue that it should be eliminated entirely, or needs to be reorganized. My plan is just to reorganize it, since it's the thing I like to focus on anyway, but I can't be the only user editing it. AlmostHalfOkay (talk) 18:08, 15 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

Please do not remove page numbers in citations, thanks. Johnjbarton (talk) 01:03, 16 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

You shouldn't remove page numbers, as that would no longer serve as a pointer to the quote. If I have, I'll need to fix that. AlmostHalfOkay (talk) 12:38, 18 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

@IP: Please read WP:CITELEAD. tgeorgescu (talk) 08:23, 25 June 2025 (UTC)Reply

WP:SIZERULE applies to this article and WP:SPINOUT is advised. ~2026-32920-02 (talk) 12:16, 20 June 2026 (UTC)Reply

I am observing a possible bias with one related topic to the article here, and another opposing it.

This source has more sources and details relating to it, and another from what I see is essentially in non-formal terms being "kneecapped" for lack of a better word. I hope I am mistaken, but I think at the very least; this article needs a criticism section to better align with [|neutrality] “Damn you all to hell!” Mistermisterwhosthemister? 19:52, 21 August 2026 (UTC)Reply

It seems to me you are saying that the article ought to include comparison to Fatalism and to Libertarianism (metaphysics). For the former see Determinism § Fatalism; for the latter see Determinism § With free will. Johnjbarton (talk) 03:50, 22 August 2026 (UTC)Reply

I see, very well then; in that case my request can be disregarded then.

Have a good one John. “Damn you all to hell!” Mistermisterwhosthemister? 01:01, 23 August 2026 (UTC)Reply