historical determinism Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
... determinism 1. A belief that historical processes have a certain inevitability, based on some fundamental factor. Its application ranges from a pessimistic fatalism which denies human free will (which ‘soft determinism ’ permits) to the far looser optimistic Enlightenment notion of progress as inevitable. Benjamin refers to this evolutionist faith in the irresistible progress of humankind as historicism (contrasting it with historical materialism ). Some, such as Popper, point to historical determinism in classical Marxism ; others (e.g....
determinism, historical Reference library
Patrick Gardiner
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2 ed.)
..., historical . A conception of human affairs according to which the historical process conforms to developmental patterns or laws that render its constitutive events necessary or inevitable. Doctrines affirming such a position exhibit wide variations. While those of an earlier vintage frequently involved providential or teleological assumptions , ones of later date have tended instead to presuppose the causal principle that whatever occurs in history is explicable as a law-governed consequence of empirically specifiable antecedent conditions. Views of...
historical determinism
Humanity and Islam Reference library
‘Ali Shari‘ati
Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook
...our wills, our sentiments and our morals, we can certainly save ourselves from historical determinism. At the present there are societies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that have covered several historical cycles in one leap without having had to go through each separate stage. Historically, societies must pass through certain stages. But to the extent that such societies find historical self-consciousness and their free-thinkers become familiar with their particular historical epoch and its makeup, to that extent these societies can skip several cycles. We...
Islam and the Challenge of Economic Development Reference library
Ahmad Khurshid
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...change as they reveal themselves by reflection on the Qur'ān and Sunna. They also provide some indicators for goals of socio-economic policy. a . Social change is not a result of totally pre-determined historical forces. The existence of a number of obstacles and constraints is a fact of life and history, but man is not subject to any historical determinism. Change has to be planned and engineered. And this change should be purposive—that is, sustained movement towards the norm or the ideal. b . Man is the most active agent for change. All other forces have been...
Contemporary Arab Ideology Reference library
‘Abdallāh Laroui
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...procedure which the Caliph ‘Umar chose to designate his successor. Ignorant or forgetful of the lessons of ethnology, he claims that the Arab is by nature free and that he cannot independently found a regime which is not democratic—an argument which at base takes up the racist determinism of E. F. Gautier. Thus dogma is saved a second time because every classical despotic organization is declared non-Muslim and with the same stroke the future is uncovered: let us organize a representative democracy and power will return to us again. Everyday floods of eloquence...
1 John, 2 John, and 3 John Reference library
Judith Lieu, Judith Lieu, Judith Lieu, and Judith Lieu
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...origin (‘from’, cf. 1 jn 3:9 ), and also between those who respond to either side: there is no neutral third party. 1 John's thought is deterministic: response does not merely result in being ‘of God’ or ‘of the world’ but is generated by it as a pre-existing state. This determinism is complementary to the realized eschatology: their victory is already complete. The greater one who is in them is God, the one in the world might either be the antichrist as in v. 3 or an allusion to the devil. Confession of Jesus is the hallmark of the spirits. Those/the...
2 Esdras Reference library
Peter Hayman and Peter Hayman
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...his questions and to have an answer. Uriel replies that all his problems will be solved, not in this age, but in the age to come. Ezra then asks how long it will be before the future age arrives, and receives a somewhat ambiguous answer, replete with characteristic apocalyptic determinism ( vv. 36–7 ). As this dialogue proceeds Ezra's role gradually diminishes until he becomes no more than a stooge offering appropriate prompting questions to Uriel. Uriel, for his part, only picks up and answers the last of Ezra's questions in vv. 23–5 . He ignores the...
Essay with Commentary on Post-Biblical Jewish Literature Reference library
Philip S. Alexander
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...at the time] of the visitation. Comment: Though prepositional and overtly theological to a degree scarcely paralleled in early Jewish literature, the Instruction on the Two Spirits begs many questions. At first reading it seems to be advocating a rigid, almost Calvinistic, determinism: every man's destiny is foreordained by the portions of good and evil that God has assigned to him. Some at Qumran may actually have understood the text in this way (see anth d .7). But it can be read differently. All that has been foreordained is that there should be two...
politics and determinism
technological determinism
determinism
social effects
gender essentialism
media history
post-Marxism
historical materialism
social area analysis
great divide theories
