Latin ” allocate “Which means” to fix “, destiny is a series of events that form the fabric of human life or of a community and which seems predefined, commanded by a power superior or immanent in the universe.

It opposes chance and free will as it approaches the term fatality: it is indeed difficult if not impossible to escape one’s destiny.

In the Dictionary of Philosophical Concepts, Michel Blay designates it as a ” force of what happens and which seems to be imposed on us without any of our actions being able to change anything ».

The philosophical belief in fate originates from an attachment to explaining nature only with the help of matter and by establishing a relationship between things. causality link ” if everything happens by virtue of antecedent causes, all events are closely related, naturally chained into each other and, if so, everything is subject to necessity »Says Cicero.

It is nevertheless difficult to believe that man waited for Antiquity to believe in fate. This notion was certainly born before any philosophical reflection and even before any organized religion. It constituted a plausible answer to questions relating to inexplicable phenomena and had the merit of being simple: a unique force, expression of a higher will or of an inherent necessity, explained the chaos.

Most cultures seem to have always shied away from the idea of ​​the existence of chance and free will. Even today, at a time of the decline of traditional religions, individuals attach great importance to fate and determinism.

The etymology of the word “destiny” indicates to us that it sometimes refers to the fixation, the determination, the resolution or the finalized project. Do we mean by this that life is only submission for those who believe in fate?

Some authors, claiming to be stoic, think that man has no impact on the course of events, no matter how small. Any hope of escaping his fate would therefore be futile. In other words: the freedom of man does not exist, and his responsibility is null. Everything is dictated to him. This does not necessarily translate into unhappiness while waiting for death: the Stoics claim that happiness is accessible to all those who voluntarily submit to their fate by accepting the fate reserved for them.

On the contrary, other authors think that fate is only a global framework within which man has a certain freedom. Fate does not control every moment of life, but it masters the most important cogs such as death or the great encounters of life. Whatever happens, he always wins. This does not prevent some from wanting to escape fate and choose their own destiny …

« Among the Ancients, the notion of fate, of fatum, does not entail fatalistic submission or ascetic renunciation. On the contrary, it stimulates desire for action. Fatum is above all perceived as a challenge to man, a challenge which man knows very well in advance that he will never be able to fully satisfy, but that he must nevertheless take up, because it is in the noting that it gives meaning to its existence. It is because there is a destiny that the response that man can attempt to oppose to it is, in the proper sense, heroic. It is because there is a destiny that we must try to make its mark on it. In acquiring the intuition of his destiny, man is no less free; on the contrary, it recovers its fundamental freedom, which is first and foremost the privilege of consenting while acting. Jean Markale, in L’Europe Païenne, Seghers, 1979.

« Fatum is an exhilarating idea when you understand that you yourself are part of it – There is only one way in the world that no one can follow except yourself. Willingly follow this path that others follow blindly. »Frédéric Nietzsche.