Determinism is the philosophical position that for every event, including human interactions, there exist conditions that could cause no other event. "There are many determinisms, depending on what pre-conditions are considered to be determinative of an event or action." Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have sprung from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and considerations. Some forms of determinism can be
empirically tested with ideas from physics and the
philosophy of physics. The opposite of determinism is some kind of
indeterminism (otherwise called
nondeterminism). Determinism is often contrasted with
free will.