Definition of "necessitarian" [ne•ces•si•ta•ri•an]

• Necessarian (noun)
• One who maintains the doctrine of philosophical necessity, in opposition to that of freedom of the will: opposed to libertarian. (The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911). (noun)
• Of or pertaining to necessity or necessitarianism: opposed to libertarian.   The Arminian has entangled the Calvinist, the Calvinist has entangled the Arminian, in a labyrinth of contradictions. The advocate of free-will appeals to conscience and instinct — to an a priori sense of what ought in equity to be. The necessitarian falls back upon the experienced reality of facts. Froude, Calvinism. (The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911). (adjective)

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• "But we have clearly shown, we trust, that the grand demonstration of the necessitarian is a sophism, whose apparent force is owing to a variety of causes: — First, it seeks out, and lays its foundation in, a false psychology; identifying the feelings, or affections, and the will."
• "I think this necessitarian or deterministic conception of design raises problems."
• "An essentialist, necessitarian, and neo-Stoic pessimist, Schopenhauer is quick to separate his inquiry from theories of "liberty" and "rights," which "only refers to an ability, that is, precisely to the absence of physical obstacles to the actions of the animal" (Schopenhauer 4)."