ABSTRACT
I t is not easy to ascertain whether Determinism is exactly the same as the Law of Universal Causation or a wider form of it. They do not seem to play quite the same role: the Law is posited as a major premiss in induction; Determinism is more linked with universe-wide necessity. The main ideas that lie behind it seem to be the following. Laws of science have traditionally been supposed to give absolute truth or part of the essence of the universe. From this essence as a whole all changes would have been held to flow. Otherwise it would have seemed unintelligible why laws should be true or necessary or why changes should obey them. Thus Determinism may have been thought of as the explanation of the existence and truth of laws of science; or it might be described as giving the element of necessity to such law.
