A fatalist is someone who believes in fate

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

If you are interested in the meaning of the word fatalist, this article will give you the most comprehensive explanation. Now this word is rarely used in everyday life, but in order not to be considered ignorant, you need to know what it still means by itself.

This word has an interesting etymology. The large Encyclopedic Dictionary said that the word "fatalism" came from the Latin "fatalis" (which has the translation "fatal") and "fatum" (translation - rock). If we turn to the English language, then it also has a word with a similar root - “fate”, which translates as “fate”.

Different explanatory dictionaries give different definitions, in which there are only minor differences. In general, the majority of authors argue that a fatalist is an individual who believes in the predestination of all events, or, more simply, in fate. The word "fatalist" is derived from the word "fatalism". As you can see, their values are approximately the same. The only difference is that fatalism is a kind of philosophical worldview, and a fatalist is the person who adheres to it.

Let's find out howDictionaries interpret the term fatalism. The dictionary authored by T. F. Efremova, for example, tells us that fatalism is nothing more than a belief in the inevitability of fate and fate, based on the assumption that everything in the world is predetermined, and a person is not able to change it.

V. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary gives a similar definition, only the author, in addition, adds that fatalism is very destructive for human morality. It's hard to argue with this. Often a fatalist is a person who lives one day. He can abuse bad habits, lead a dissolute lifestyle, commit rash and stupid acts. Of course, it is not worth generalizing, but even in world fiction, many writers raise the problem of a fatalistic outlook on life. For example, the great Russian writer Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov. Fatalist is the title of one of the chapters of his famous novel A Hero of Our Time. It tells about the dispute between Pechorin (the main character) and the Serbian officer Vulich about the predestination of fate. To prove that you can’t escape fate, the young officer grabbed the first revolver that came across, loaded it, put it to his temple … but he misfired. Pechorin partly admitted that he was right, but the next morning it turned out that Vulich had died: he was hacked to death with a sword by a drunken Cossack. But even after that, Pechorin refuses to believe in the power of fate, fate, because the greatest happiness for him is to have freedom of choice, and also to go forward, not knowing what awaits next.

So, a fatalist is someone who believes in fate. Adherence to fatalism has both positive and negative sides. The positive ones include the relative simplicity of the way of life: after all, you can safely rely on the will of fate, not think about tomorrow, be sure that everything is already predetermined and nothing will change anyway. The same imaginary simplicity of existence belongs to the negative: the fatalist goes with the flow, does not fight for his dreams, does not try to cope with his problems and shortcomings, in general, does not live, but exists. However, the choice of worldview is, of course, a personal matter for everyone, and we only hope that this article has helped someone learn more.