Is Fatalism True?

Whatever is harmonious to you harmonizes with me, O Universe. Nothing is too early or too late for me which is timely for you. Whatever your seasons bring nurtures me, O Nature: from you everything comes, in you everything abides, to you everything returns.
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (paraphrase of George Long translation, 1863)

Do not wish for things to happen as you desire, but wish that they should happen as they do. Then you will have a happy life.
- Epictetus, The Enchiridion (paraphrase of George Long translation, 1863)

Is everything that happens bound to happen? The Stoics believed in fatalism, the doctrine that whatever happens was bound to happen and no amount of effort or worry can change it. In the words of the old Doris Day song, que sera, sera-- what will be, will be. Is this correct?

The most famous Stoics were Epictetus, a Greek slave of the Romans, and Marcus Aurelius, an emperor of Rome. Both men believed that whatever role you are given in life, you should play it out as well as you can. Whether your lot is lowly or exalted, whether you are a slave or an emperor, you should do your duty and not worry about the future.

This point of view can be comforting, especially about the situations in life that seem inevitable. Many people nowadays still believe that, for example, when someone dies, it was his or her "time to go". And many people believe that whatever happens is part of some "vast, eternal plan"-a phrase from Tevye's song in Fiddler on the Roof. And many people--even world leaders, we are told-- consult their horoscopes daily, in the belief that the configurations of the stars influence actions and events on earth.

But if fatalism were true, you and I would have no free will. And if we had no free will we would have no moral responsibility. If I borrowed money from you and failed to pay you back, I could just say "It was meant to be," as if paying you back wasn't up to me at all. Would you accept such an argument?

As we all know, it does make sense to hold one another responsible for our actions. So fatalism cannot be true... can it?

Bibliography

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations/ Epictetus, Enchiridion Gateway, Chicago, 1956. (both translated by George Long, c. 1863)