Abstract

1. In his article, “McTaggart’s Logical Determinism”, Nicholas Rescher has claimed that McTaggart’s theory of universal determination, i.e., his “logical determinism,” is unsound. In this paper I shall argue that Rescher’s criticisms are inconclusive and that, for the most part, they rest upon a failure to distinguish between McTaggart’s principle of intrinsic determination and his principle of extrinsic determination. McTaggart’s theory of universal determination, I shall suggest, is based upon the principle of extrinsic determination, and that, given certain fairly uncontroversial assumptions, this principle is both valid and adequate to establish McTaggart’s theory of universal determination.