ABSTRACT
Induction is regarded by positivists as a pseudo-problem : that is to say, it is held to be a mistake to seek a basis for induction in some postulate ; nothing is really required to guarantee the validity of inductive inference. Causation may be regarded as a special case of the inductive relation; hence with it, too, no ground is to be sought. Causation must therefore consist only of regularity of conjunction, without the backing of any necessity. This interpretation of causation is very like the Law of Uniformity of Nature, so far as this asserts mere concomitance, but in the positivist view it is not a law or a general truth used as a premiss in induction. Thus it differs from the Keynes-Broad view in being more radically empirical and in not being a postulate.
