NECESSITY, whatever is done by a cause or power that is irresistible. In this sense it is opposed to freedom. Man is a necessary agent, if all his actions be so determined by the causes preceding each action, that not one past action could possibly not have come to pass, or have been otherwise than it has been; or if it be so ordained that any future action cannot possibly not come to pass, or be otherwise than it shall be. But he is a free agent if he be able, at any time, to do different things; or, in other words, if he be not unavoidably determined in every point of time, by the circumstances in which he is placed, and the causes to the action of which he is exposed, to do that one thing which he does, and not possibly to do any other thing. Whether man is a necessary or a free agent, is a question which has been debated with much ingenuity by writers of the first eminence. (See METAPHYSICS, part iii. chap. v.; and also PREDESTINATION.)