BOOK III
DETERMINATION

. . . with pins of adamant And chains, they made all fast; too fast they made And durable . . . MILTON, Paradise Lost, Book X.

ARGUMENT 0F BOOK III

In this Book I take together all that McTaggart says in the Nature of Existence about the notion of the determination of one quality or fact or thing by another. In the first chapter I consider the notions of Implication and Entailment, and finally pass to McTaggart's notion of Intrinsic Determination. In the second chapter I consider two relations, closely connected with Intrinsic Determination, which McTaggart calls "Presupposition" and "Requirement". T'he third chapter is concerned with Causation, which McTaggart regards as a special case of Intrinsic Determination. After stating and criticising McTaggart's views on Causation, on the Uniformity of Nature, and on Induction, I venture on an independent discussion of Causation. The fourth chapter deals with a peculiar relation which McTaggart called "Extrinsic Determination". After stating and criticising McTaggart's views as to the nature and range of this relation, I discuss the facts which he has in mind from a somewhat different point of view. The chapter and the Book end with an independent discussion of the common-sense notion of the "nature" of a substance, and the common-sense view that the very same substance, which was in fact in a certain situation and did in fact behave in a certain way, might then have been in a dissimilar situation, and would then have behaved in a dissimilar way.

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Contents -- Chapter 11

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