Old-fashioned determinism was what we may call hard determinism. It did not shrink from such words as fatality, bondage of the will, necessitation, and the like. Nowadays, we have a soft determinism which abhors harsh words, and, repudiating fatality, necessity, and even predetermination, says that its real name is freedom; for freedom is only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.
ATTRIBUTION:
William James (1842–1910), U.S. philosopher, psychologist. Originally published in the Unitarian Review (1884). “The Dilemma of Determinism,” Essays in Pragmatism, ed. Alburey Castell (1948).
