In recent years, the issue of the compatibility of free will and determinism has been studied by philosophers by methods of experimental philosophy among ordinary people.  The results of these experiments led to new disputes about the definition of determinism and fatalism. I propose that to get valid results from experiments, one should first study the perception of ordinary people about what determinism and fatalism are. The research aims to study (non-expert) human perception of determinism as well as people’s views regarding fatalism.  The goal of this background research was to change the playing field of further debates on free will and determinism. The results have been summarized and compared with previous literature along with consequent inference on common grounds between determinism and fatalism.

Keywords: free will, fatalism, destiny, foreknowledge, determinism, phenomenology