EleutherIA — Defined term

Ananke (Necessity / Determinism)

ἀνάγκη

Classical Greek

Ananke means necessity or constraint, but its role varies by author. Diogenes Laertius IX.45 reports that Democritus held that everything occurs according to necessity and called the cosmic vortex cause or necessity; talk of mechanistic laws is a modern reconstruction. In Plato's Timaeus 48a the cosmos arises from intellect and necessity, with intellect ruling by persuading necessity toward the better. Stoic fate is a separate doctrine, not a lexical development of ananke. Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus 133–134, distinguishes necessity, chance, and what depends on us.

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