There is a rude saying among the people: "Born to hang himself, he will never drown himself." It perfectly conveys the essence of fatalism: belief in the predestination of all events occurring in the world.
The belief that any factors do not depend on a person and his will, but are planned in advance somewhere, is not taken seriously by modern society. But … On the one hand, we are sure that fatalism is a completely outdated view of things. We perfectly understand the spontaneity of our own creativity, the unpredictability of scientific research. On the other hand, we are very familiar with the everyday manifestation of this concept. This is either a belief that your initiative will not lead to anything good, or disbelief in its successful outcome and results. However, belief in fate exists not only at the everyday level. Philosophical and religious fatalism arose, probably, together with the appearance of man as a person. From these points of view, this means faith in the impotence of man before the Universe, God, and the forces of nature. The predestination of being is the essence of a fatalistic view of the nature of things.
Main currentsfatalism
- Religious - belief in fate, divine predestination. This belief is characteristic of adherents of absolutely all religions. She does not allow other views.
- Philosophical-historical - the belief that nature and life develop independently of the will and activity of people. Disbelief in the will of man, his ability to change the world, in human initiative. Briefly, the provisions can be formulated as follows: cataclysms (wars, catastrophes, etc.) cannot be avoided, there are objective reasons for each inevitable event, therefore, the will of a person is nothing.
Is fatalism good or bad?
The doctrine of fate began to spread throughout the world in ancient times. There are people for whom even today it is the basis of life development. The Jews have the concept of fate and lot. The Jews, however, believe that everything is predetermined, but there is a choice. In Islam, the concept of "qadar" indicates that everything in the world is created according to the just will of Allah and only him. Hindus believe in Dharma: it is believed that “dirty” karma will endlessly drive the sinner around the world, forcing him, being reborn, to “work off” his sins again and again, while “pure” karma completes the circle of rebirths. There are similar concepts in Buddhism, Chinese, Japanese and other philosophies. For people who believe in fate or believe in God, fatalism is a combination of factors of inanimate nature, the actions of the Almighty and human actions, as a predetermined consequence of these forces. The concept of fatalism is very convenientsome categories of people. All your failures in life, the lack of initiative can be attributed to the predestination of life. Fatalism is the belief that life is an already completed machine, and people are mere cogs in it. From this point of view, heroes, enterprising people, all striving for progress are ordinary consumables that should not be treasured. From this point of view, terrorism, and infanticide, and any other crimes can be justified. "That's how fate decreed it." And who can go against what has long been predetermined? Fatalism completely eliminates the concepts of "personality", "good", "evil", "creativity", "innovation", "heroism" and many others.