tychism SECOND EDITION 1989


(takz()m) [f. Gr. chance + -ISM.]

The doctrine that objective account must be taken of the element of chance in (philosophical, cosmological, etc.) reasoning.

1892 C. S. PEIRCE in Monist II. 533, I endeavored to show what ideas ought to form the warp of a system of philosophy, and particularly emphasised that of absolute chance..which it will be convenient to christen tychism (from , chance). 1926 J. LAIRD Study in Moral Theory viii. 173 The theory that every event..is necessary (or must occur precisely as it does occur) I shall call determinism… The opposite theory I shall call tychism, such tychism being either general or restricted. 1978 Sci. Amer. July 18/1 At a time when determinism dominated physics Peirce's doctrine of `tychism' maintained that pure chanceevents undetermined by prior causesare basic to the universe.