determinism

Examples of determinism in the following topics:

• Literary Naturalism

  • They believed that heredity and social environment largely determine one's character.
  • Whereas realism seeks only to describe subjects as they really are, naturalism also attempts to determine the underlying forces (e.g., the environment or heredity) influencing the actions of its subjects.
  • Another characteristic of naturalism is determinism, the opposite of the notion of free will.
  • For determinism, the idea that individual characters have a direct influence on the course of their lives is supplanted by a focus on nature or fate.
  • Often, a naturalist author will lead the reader to believe a character's fate has been pre-determined, usually by environmental factors, and that he/she can do nothing about it.

• The Debate over Slavery

  • One of the most contentious slavery-related questions was whether slaves would be counted as part of the population in determining representation in Congress, or if they would be considered property and therefore exempt from representation.
  • Delegates from states with large populations of slaves argued that slaves should be considered as people in determining representation.
  • Delegates from states where slavery had become rare argued the opposite: that slaves should be included in taxation but not in determining representation.
  • The amendment was to have changed the basis for determining each state's wealth and, hence, its tax obligations, from real estate to population, as a measure of wealth-generating ability.

• The Progressive Stake in the War

  • Morality, liberal democracy and self-determination fueled Progressivism and its goals of eliminating government corruption and increasing efficiency and expertise in areas such as education and social justice.
  • Yet Progressives eventually came to believe that, in contrast to the great powers of the Concert of Europe, America possessed a superior moral position as the only great nation devoted to the principles of freedom, democracy and self-determination, and that those ideals could be achieved in a just war.
  • Wilson's speech translated many of the principles of Progressivism that had produced domestic reform in the U.S. into foreign policy encompassing free trade, open agreements, democracy, and self-determination, which was the ideal of nations determining their own futures without outside political or military interference.

• Gibbons v. Ogden

  • In formulating his opinion on this case, Marshall began the careful work of determining what the phrase "commerce...among the several states" actually means in the Constitution.
  • Supreme Court had to interpret the language of the Commerce Clause, and determine whether or not the law regulated "commerce" that was "among the several states. " The Court held that "commerce" constitutes more than mere traffic, rather, that it includes the trade of commodities, and therefore intercourse.
  • The Court interpreted "among" to mean "intermingled with. " Marshall's ruling determined that "a Congressional power to regulate navigation is as expressly granted as if that term had been added to the word 'commerce. '"
  • Ogden case, Marshall began the careful work of determining what the phrase "commerce...among the several states" meant.

• State Constitutions

  • Patriots, as they gained control of formerly Loyalist territories, devised constitutions to determine governance in these new states.

• Wilmot Proviso

  • The result was a violent sectarian debate in Congress that forced political leaders to make numerous compromises to determine the slave issue in the newly acquired U.S. territories.
  • Calhoun, Southern slaveholders claimed that the federal government had no right to curtail the spread of slavery into any new territories, claiming that it was each individual state’s right under the principle of state sovereignty to determine whether or not its territory would be free or permit slavery.

• "A More Perfect Union"

  • Large states felt that populations should determine how many representatives a state should have, because they were afraid that they would be outvoted by the small states.
  • Another contentious slavery-related question was whether slaves would be counted as part of the population in determining representation of the states in the Congress, or would instead be considered property and as such not be considered for purposes of representation.
  • Delegates from states with a large population of slaves argued that slaves should be considered persons in determining representation, but as property if the new government were to levy taxes on the states on the basis of population.
  • Delegates from states where slavery had become rare argued that slaves should be included in taxation, but not in determining representation.

• The Family Economy: Women and Children

  • The separation between female and male spheres was heavily influenced by biological determinism, the notion that women and men are naturally suitable for different social roles due to their biological and genetic makeup.
  • The idea of biological determinism was popular during the Age of Enlightenment and among such thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau who argued that women were inherently different from men and should devote themselves to reproduction and domesticity.
  • By the early 20th century, however, dissident anthropologists and other social scientists began to challenge the biological determination of human behavior, revealing great similarities between men and women and suggesting that many sex differences were socially constructed.

• The Legal Ramifications for Slavery

  • One of the most contentious slavery-related questions was whether slaves would be counted as part of the population in determining representation in the United States Congress, or considered property not entitled to representation.
  • Delegates from states with a large population of slaves argued that slaves should be considered persons in determining representation, but as property if the new government were to levy taxes on the states on the basis of population.
  • Delegates from states where slavery had become rare argued that slaves should be included in taxation, but not in determining representation.

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 mandated that popular sovereignty would determine the slave or free status in the region.
  • Douglas (IL), repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and mandated that popular sovereignty would determine any new territory's slave or free status.