When to use "fate" and when to use "destiny"? Are they interchangeable?

Question

In Wordnet Dictionary, if you search for fate you will see that it has 3 meanings and all these meanings have synonym destiny.

1- destiny, fate - an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future

2- Destiny, Fate - the ultimate agency that predetermines the course of events (often personified as a woman); "we are helpless in the face of Destiny"

3- fortune, destiny, fate, luck, lot, circumstances, portion - your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you); "whatever my fortune may be"; "deserved a better fate"; "has a happy lot"; "the luck of the Irish"; "a victim of circumstances"; "success that was her portion"

Source: http://www.wordnet-online.com/fate.shtml

However, I think fate carries quite a negative meaning like "He died in a car accident, it's his fate", no one says "it's his destiny".

Whereas, destiny carries a quite positive meaning like "our destiny is to build a great company", no one says "our fate is to build a great company" as it sounds very bizarre.

Answer 1

I think that Dave makes an important contribution with his answer and I have given it a vote.

But I don't think it is entirely a question of personal control, though it would seem possible that fate could deny you your destiny.

I think the OP's idea of positive and negative is also relevant and I have upvoted that too. One seldom hears of anyone fated with riches, or with good looks, unless the riches, or the good looks, in some way become an impediment to their happiness.

But I sense there are other angles to this and that the two notions do engage much that is relevant in western philosophy. It would be an interesting topic to research and on which to write a considered essay.

Answer 2

I think your distinction on negativity and positivity might not be accurate. There is no reason one could not say "the company was fated for success", or "it was his ultimate destiny to die in a car accident."

The two are largely synonymous, but if there is a distinction to be made, I believe it is to do with the degree to which one believes free will plays a part.

Fate implies that the results were inevitable regardless of the actions of the people or entities involved. A company fated for success can do no wrong, it was always "in the stars" that they would become that way. When you say someone ended up at their fate, you are most likely talking about how it didn't matter what they did. Even though they were a successful rock star and had everything going for them, they still died in a plane crash. It was their fate.

Destiny implies some amount of direction and action on the part of the people or entities involved. Your destiny is a path laid out for you, but you still have to walk it. When you say someone was destined to be famous, you are acknowledging that they not only had the talent but that they promoted themselves and practised and networked and did whatever it took to get noticed.

In other words, you can sensibly say "it was his fate to be in a car accident" and "it was his destiny to be in a car accident", but in the first case, no matter what he did that car accident was going to happen to him. In the second case, his actions, by driving recklessly perhaps, it was inevitable that eventually the accident would befall him.

Confusion reigns over these two terms, of course, especially because both are used in a hyperbolic way. There is no such thing in reality as a company that is either fated or destined for success. Any company can fail at any time for any number of reasons. But, in retrospect, especially when talking about massively successful companies that seem to have done everything right from the get-go, people throw about fate and destiny as if they had some literal weight, and in the process blurring the lines between the two.

Probably the clearest line of distinction is in their negative forms. You can miss your destiny, but not miss your fate. "She was destined for success but rested on her laurels, and thus did not make it," is a sensible thing to say. However, "she was fated to die that day but didn't" seems strange (to me). If she didn't die, then it couldn't have actually been her fate.

Answer 3

I wouldn't say fate carries a negative meaning by itself.

For me the difference between fate, destiny, luck, chance, fortune, karma, and other similar terms has to do more with the philosophical outlook one has towards the world. Each of these terms implies that on some level we are not in control of events that happen to us, but they differ in the types of causes.

I take i that

The term luck means that events happen according to no rhyme or reason.

The term fate means that it has all been predetermined and not with any hope for our betterment. See this discussion of fatalism.

The term destiny I think can imply differing levels of positive expectation from the way events are determined. Thus, for America, we have the term Manifest Destiny to mean that America the right to achieve the conquest of the North American content (south of Canada and north of part of Mexico). For some other examples, see here. But note that we also say destined for failure.

The term karma has an origin in what we normally call Hinduism and implies that what is happening to you know is an inevitable consequence of what you did in a previous life. Karma from wikipedia.

The term fortune implies that good things are coming overall but that we cannot be certain of these things, and that our fortunes can change. Fortuna was the name of a capricious Roman goddess (Tyche in the Greek).See here.

All of that to say I don't see the words themselves as positive or negative except insofar as the concepts they imply are behind actions are positive or negative. We also use these terms colloquially without implying the background worldview.