Historical determinism is the stance in explaining history or advocating a political position that events are historically predetermined (and/or currently constrained) by various forces. Since such explanation is the norm, it may be better understood in contrast to its negation, i.e. the rejection of historical determinism.
The italicized alternation (and/or) is significant because some political philosophies (e.g. Marxism) assert a form of the one and reject the other. Used as a pejorative, it is normally meant to designate an overdetermination of present possibilities by historical conditions.
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or determinism:
“This seems a long while ago, and yet it happened since Milton wrote his Paradise Lost. But its antiquity is not the less great for that, for we do not regulate our historical time by the English standard, nor did the English by the Roman, nor the Roman by the Greek.... From this September afternoon, and from between these now cultivated shores, those times seemed more remote than the dark ages.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)