Fatalism or FreeWill: A Sociological Approach to an Old Conflict

Free will of human actions on the one hand and on the other hand, the divine necessities originated form Gods power and knowledge have been two sides of a conflict among the theologians that based on the type of asserting the relation among them, three theological approaches have been emerged among the Muslims. In comparison to Asharites and Mutazilah, Imamiyeh has adopted an intermediate approach in which in addition to maintaining the free will aspects of actions, the ordered system derived from the power of God has not been ignored. Briefly evaluating the historical and social conditions of these theories in this paper, features of sociological understanding about position of free will and its limits are analyzed. Modern conditions and sociological understanding directed to it have put forward a new formulation from the status of free will. Under such conditions, social compulsion is the result of many individuals free will which are directed toward each other and to realize maximization, this phenomenon captures an independent and compulsory trait. The cultural binding rules will result in realization of free will. Although such sociological knowledge does not have the capacity to bring up a discussion about theological goals essential to human realm, while maintaining the feature of free will of human activity, to illustrate the quality of realization of social order in the contemporary conditions, this sociological formation will help the theologians to have a better statement of the issue. Also, in comparison to the approaches of Asharites and Mutazilah, it will explicate the merits of Imamiyeh approach about the intermediary situation of free will and fatalism.