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actions. According to Case-Winters in the Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, she states that there are six types of determinism. There are causal, scientific,
metaphysical, mathematical, logical and theological determinism.
a. Causal Determinism
Causal determinism is, roughly speaking, the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature.
The idea is ancient, but first became subject to clarification and mathematical analysis in the eighteenth century Case-Winters, 2003:216. Determinism is
deeply connected with our understanding of the physical sciences and their explanatory ambitions, on the one hand, and with our views about human free
action on the other. In both of these general areas there is no agreement over whether determinism is true or even whether it can be known true or false, and
what the import for human agency would be in either case.
b. Scientific Determinism
Scientific determinism is inspired by classical physics. One interpretation entails that everything in the universe is governed by universal laws.
Universal in this context means that the laws are the same everywhere in the universe and at all times, and that they apply to all events and objects. A second
interpretation of scientific determinism holds that every event has a sufficient cause Case-Winters, 2003:216. Since the second half of the twentieth century,
however, more and more scientists argue that not all natural laws are deterministic, but that some of these laws may be inherently statistical in nature.
This line of argument could constitute an argument for indeterminism, and is
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explored further by Karl Popper 1902–1994. Thus, as John Earman argues in A Primer on Determinism, one must keep in mind that scientific determinism is first
of all a claim about how the world is constituted. As such one must distinguish this ontological claim from the epistemological claim to predictability, even
though both often go together. That determinism does not always entail predictability is testified by chaotic systems, which display deterministic though
unpredictable behavior.
c. Metaphysical Determinism
Metaphysical determinism conveys the idea that if everything in the universe is governed by universal laws, and if every event has a sufficient cause,
then there is only one history possible. One can clarify this idea by using possible- world semantics Case-Winters, 2003:217. If a possible world starts off with
exactly the same initial conditions as the actual world and with exactly the same universal laws, its evolution would look the same in every detail. As such,
metaphysical determinism entails scientific determinism, but not necessarily vice versa, even though scientific determinism could be used to defend metaphysical
determinism.
d. Mathematical Determinism
