There are many different notions of necessity going back to antiquity. One of the oldest such
notions is the idea of fate. According to Greek philosophy and religion, fate controls major life
events, such as the time of one’s death. In Indian philosophy and religion, we find the related
notion of karma. According to traditional karma theory, what one suffers and enjoys now is a
product of what one did in the past, including past lives. The notions of fate and karma each
seem at first to conflict with the idea of free will. This lecture will describe the notions of fate
and karma, and also explain how neither notion poses a pervasive threat to free will. The lecture
will conclude by considering why the ideas of fate and karma have such great cultural resonance.
Outline I. The idea of fate plays a central role in the Greek tradition. A. Fatalism doctrine
prescribes that certain events are bound to happen no matter what one does. 1. Oedipus is the
canonical example, presented in Sophocles’s play, Oedipus Rex (c. 429 B.C.E.). In the play,
Oedipus was fated to kill his father and marry his mother, and despite their best efforts, this came
to pass. 2. In Sophocles’s play, there is no appeal to gods as the explanation for Oedipus’s
outcome. 3. In Homer’s Iliad (c. 750 B.C.E.), the fatalistic worldview gets personified as fate,
which is somehow separate from the gods that the poem discusses. 4. Gradually in Greek
literature, we see even greater personification of fate. The Fates are identified as three gods:
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. B. The relation between fate and the gods is delicate. 1. One
strand of Greek thought holds that the Fates cause everything. 2. This thought conflicts with the
view that the gods have the power to change fate. 3. The Syrian philosopher Lucian exposes the
tensions between these two views in his satire, Zeus Catechized. First, Lucian points out the
futility of making sacrifices to the gods if everything is already set in stone by fate. 4. Then
Lucian describes the implications for responsibility, even questioning the propriety of
punishment. C. What is the reach of fate? 1. In the Iliad, Zeus acknowledges the existence of fate
but apparently he has the power to intervene. 2. Many Greek theologians and philosophers
believe that gods and fate do not dictate each and every behavior of mortals. Rather, it is major
life events (e.g., death, marriage, injury) that are products of fate. D. Does fate threaten free will?
1. In Greek cosmology fate is probably local, for specific and particular life events. Every
individual life event is not fated. 2. We must consider that it might have been inevitable that
Oedipus would marry his mother, but not inevitable he would plan the wedding. 3. Although the
outcome was inevitable, Oedipus might have exercised free will in selecting the path. All paths
ultimately led to catastrophe for Oedipus, but he might have freely chosen between the options.
E. Does fate undermine responsibility? 1. As in virtually all known cultures, the Greeks thought
people are typically responsible for their actions and accordingly sometimes deserve blame. 2. In
the Iliad, Agamemnon seems to deny responsibility for his dispute with Achilles: “I am not to
blame! Zeus, and fate, and the Fury stalking through the night, they are the ones who drove that
savage madness in my heart … what could I do? A god impels all things to their fulfillment.” 3.
If only some of our actions are fated to happen, difficult questions arise regarding our
responsibility for those actions which are fated. And since the fated outcomes are often the most
momentous parts of our lives, the questions are pressing. 4. The puzzling conflict between fate
and responsibility is acknowledged in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon. In the play, Agamemnon’s wife
claims that she’s not responsible for murdering him. The chorus rejects this claim but questions
how she can really be responsible for the murder if everything is ordained by Zeus.