Antedating of "Determinism"

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Tue Jul 25 12:22:06 UTC 2006


"determinism":  1846--OED

"determinism":  1838--Fred (a couple of days ago)

"deterministic":  1874--OED

1815:  "Was it only once deemed worth while strictly to examine it, it would then be found that a hidden deterministic idea is at the bottom of these doubts; and that determinism is untenable, is proven by all the contradictions the doctrine contains."--Gottlieb Shober, translator, Scenes in the World of Spirits of Henry Stilling [that is, Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling]; New Market [VA]: Ambrose Henkel.  1815 is the copyright date; the translator's preface is dated 1 Nov. 1814.  One suspects that the translator was not totally fluent in English--or is that just the way philosophers have always talked?

--Charlie

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list