Collapse of Determinism

MANY readers of Nature will have noted with interest Prof. H. T. H. Piaggio's clear and dispassionate article on the ``Collapse of Determinism''<sup>1</sup>. Of particular interest is the statement, ``But a third interpretation goes so far as to claim that the existence of causality is disproved'' . This, of course, was the theme of Prof. E. T. Whittaker's Guthrie Lecture². His arguments, however, are open to serious criticism, and there has been a tendency to throw the onus on Von Neumann's mathematical demonstration³. This, however, is also under criticism⁴ and there are many who, knowing how easily assumptions can lurk in analytical work, refuse to be mathematically bludgeoned. Harm can be done to the reputation of science by any who proclaim as a definite doctrine what is but a tentative effort.