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Destiny, sometimes also called fate (), is a predetermined course of events.Compare determinism, the philosophy proposition that every event, including human cognition and behavior, is causality determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. It may be conceived as a predeterminism future, whether in general or of an individual.
Todays traditional usage defines fate similar: as a power or agency that predetermines (rules) the attributes of a thing or set of events positively or negatively affecting someone or a group. Other possibilities are that of an idiom, to Fortune-telling, or simply the result of chance and events. In Hellenistic civilization, the chaotic and unforeseeable turns of chance gave increasing prominence to a previously less notable goddess, Tyche (literally "Luck"), who embodied the good fortune of a city and all whose lives depended on its security and prosperity, two good qualities of life that appeared to be out of human reach. The Roman image of Fortuna, with the wheel she blindly turned, was retained by Christian writers including Boethius, revived strongly in the Renaissance, and survives in some forms today."Rota Fortunae" remains an emblem of the chance element in fate(destiny).
The Stoics believed that human decisions and actions ultimately went according to a divine plan devised by a god. They claimed that although humans theoretically have free will, their souls and the circumstances under which they live are all part of the universal network of fate.
The Epicureans challenged the Stoic beliefs by denying the existence of this divine fate. They believed that a human's actions were voluntary so long as they were rational.
For Arthur Schopenhauer, destiny was just a manifestation of the Will to Live, which can be at the same time living fate and choice of overrunning fate, by means of the Art, of the Morality and of the Asceticism.
For Friedrich Nietzsche, destiny keeps the form of Amor fati (Love of Fate) through the important element of Nietzsche's philosophy, the "will to power" (der Wille zur Macht), the basis of human behavior, influenced by the Will to Live of Schopenhauer. But this concept may have even other senses, although he, in various places, saw the will to power as a strong element for adaptation or survival in a better way.Beyond Good & Evil 13, Gay Science 349 & Genealogy of Morality II:12 Nietzsche eventually transformed the idea of matter as centers of force into matter as centers of will to power as humanity's destiny to face with amor fati. The expression Amor fati is used repeatedly by Nietzsche as acceptation-choice of the fate, but in such way it becomes even another thing, precisely a "choice" destiny.
Determinism is a philosophical concept often confused with fate. It can be defined as the notion that all intents/actions are causally determined by the culminations of an agent's existing circumstances; simply put, everything that happens is determined by things that have already happened. Determinism differs from fate in that it is never conceived as being a spiritual, religious, nor astrological notion; fate is typically thought of as being "given" or "decreed" while determinism is "caused". Influential philosophers like Robert Kane, Thomas Nagel, Roderick Chisholm, and A. J. Ayer have written about this notion.
General José de San Martín, Libertadores of Argentina, Chile and Peru, famously said "You will be what you must be, or you will be nothing".
In War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy wrote of the 'unconscious swarm-life of mankind', while Shakespeare spoke of a 'tide in the affairs of men' in his play Julius Caesar.
In England, fate has played a notable literary role in Shakespeare's Macbeth (1606), Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), Samuel Beckett's Endgame (1957), and W.W Jacobs' popular short story "The Monkey's Paw" (1902). In America, Thornton Wilder's book The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) portrays the conception of fate.
In Germany, fate is a recurring theme in the literature of Hermann Hesse (1877–1962), including Siddharta (1922) and his magnum opus, Das Glasperlenspiel, also published as The Glass Bead Game (1943). And by Hollywood through such characters as Neo in The Matrix. The common theme of these works involves a protagonist who cannot escape their destiny, however hard they try. In Neil Gaiman's graphic novel series The Sandman, destiny is one of the Endless, depicted as a blind man carrying a book that contains all the past and all the future: "Destiny is the oldest of the Endless; in the Beginning was the Word, and it was traced by hand on the first page of his book, before ever it was spoken aloud."Gaiman, Neil9781401285814 ISBN 9781401285814
Destiny is a frequent concept in Jorge Luis Borges' short stories and poems. In The Garden of Forking Paths, destiny is represented by a labyrinth of choices, where every possibility exists simultaneously. The protagonist later realizes his actions are predetermined as the story unfolds with an inevitable conclusion. In The Lottery in Babylon, as a metaphor for fate and chance, a secret lottery determines every aspect of life, making personal choice irrelevant. In Ajedrez, Chess pieces move accordingly to fixed rules, symbolizing how humans follow a predetermined destiny controlled by an unseen hand.
Many stories and poems by Borges also develop the idea of a destined death. In Poema conjetural, an important historical figure in the history of Argentina, who had dreamed of having a civilized and prestigious life and death, ends up being violently tracked down by "savages" and killed, but instead of lamenting his death, he dies surprisingly joyfully "finding his south american destiny".
Similarly, in The South, a dying man in a hospital hallucinates about having a heroic death, in which he is killed in a duel against a gaucho.
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