Fate and Destiny

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Fate and Destiny: Some Historical Distinctions between the Concepts Richard W. Bargdill Saint Francis University Abstract There has been a great deal of attention given to the “free will versus determinism” debate. However, little attention has been paid to the most common expressions from this controversy—people’s everyday experience of fate and destiny. In fact, fate and destiny are terms that are often used as synonyms as if there were no differences between the two words. This paper distinguishes the two concepts by reviewing some historical distinctions made by a variety of philosophers, psychologists and scientists. The paper also discusses some of our contemporary understandings of destiny and concludes that an individual’s stance toward fate and destiny significantly affects one’s sense of life-authorship and vitality. It is common to hear the outcome of events being described as being the result of fate, destiny or sometimes a result of both. But fate and destiny are not just concepts with an entertainment value, these ideas point to serious issues of great interest in a number of important areas such as: philosophy, theology, physics, psychology, and, of course, biology. This paper will concentrate on some of the historical thinkers who have contrasted fate and destiny as well as point out some of the important issues implied by those thinkers. But first, the definitions of both terms will be evaluated. According to an online Greek translation service (Craine, 2004), fate and destiny in ancient Greek came from exactly the same word: moira. This may suggest that the ancients saw little or no difference between the terms in their own times. In Latin, the word for fate is fatum and derives from the verb meaning “to speak.” Bollas (1989) notes that a fatum is a prophecy and that a fatus is an oracle. This definition centers on the fact that most knowledge of one’s fate

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