Laws of Nature

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-133
Author(s):  
Richard Corry

This chapter investigates how an ontology of power and influence might help us answer the question ‘What is it to be a law of nature?’ In particular, the chapter investigates how this ontology might help us develop the dispositional essentialist account of laws as it is presented by Alexander Bird. It is argued that Bird's derivation of laws from dispositions only works if we combine the view that some properties are powers in Bird's sense (they have an essential dispositional nature that is modally fixed) with the view that the relevant properties are powers in the sense developed in this book (they are dispositions to manifest causal influence).

Author(s):  
Richard Corry

This book investigates the metaphysical presuppositions of a common—and very successful—reductive approach to dealing with the complexity of the world. The reductive approach in question is one in which we study the components of a complex system in relative isolation, and use the information so gained to explain or predict the behaviour of the complex whole. So, for example, ecologists explain shifts in species population in terms of interactions between individuals, geneticists explain traits of an organism in terms of interactions between genes, and physicists explain the properties of a gas in terms of collisions between the particles that make up the gas. It is argued that this reductive method makes substantive metaphysical assumptions about the world. In particular, the method assumes the existence of causal powers that manifest ‘causal influence’—a relatively unrecognized ontological category of which forces are a paradigm example. The success of the reductive method, therefore, is an argument for the existence of such causal influence. The book goes on to show that adding causal influence to our ontology gives us the resources to solve some traditional problems in the metaphysics of powers, causation, emergence, laws of nature, and possibly even normative ethics. What results, then, is not just an understanding of the reductive method, but an integrated metaphysical world view that is grounded in a novel ontology of power and influence.


The concept of a law of nature, while familiar, is deeply puzzling. Theorists such as Descartes think a divine being governs the universe according to the laws which follow from that being’s own nature. Newton detaches the concept from theology and is agnostic about the ontology underlying the laws of nature. Some later philosophers treat laws as summaries of events or tools for understanding and explanation, or identify the laws with principles and equations fundamental to scientific theories. In the first part of this volume, essays from leading historians of philosophy identify central questions: are laws independent of the things they govern, or do they emanate from the powers of bodies? Are the laws responsible for the patterns we see in nature, or should they be collapsed into those patterns? In the second part, contributors at the forefront of current debate evaluate the role of laws in contemporary Best System, perspectival, Kantian, and powers- or mechanisms-based approaches. These essays take up pressing questions about whether the laws of nature can be consistent with contingency, whether laws are based on the invariants of scientific theories, and how to deal with exceptions to laws. These twelve essays, published here for the first time, will be required reading for anyone interested in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and the histories of these disciplines.


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-159
Author(s):  
Rosamond Rhodes

AbstractHobbes presents the fifth Law of Nature, Mutual Accommodation, in Leviathan, Chapter XV. Although a great deal of scholarly attention has been devoted to the first four Laws of Nature, hardly any mention of the fifth appears in the literature. This paper explains the fifth Law as a central piece of Hobbes's theory and thereby reveals his progressive inclinations. Drawing upon relevant passages in Leviathan I show how Hobbes's view of property allocation and reallocation derives from this Law and how attention to mutual accommodation directs sovereigns to constrain their grasping inclinations and curb their disposition to overextend legislative authority.


2020 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-558
Author(s):  
Michael McKenna

Abstract In this article, the author examines Keith Lehrer’s response to the Consequence Argument. He argues that his response has advantages over David Lewis’s. Contrary to what Lewis suggests in a footnote, Lehrer’s assessment of an ability to affect the laws of nature in deterministic settings is largely the same as Lewis’s. However, Lehrer’s position has an advantage that Lewis’s lacks. Lehrer integrates his proposal within a positive account of freedom, and this helps to explain how it could be that an agent is able to do otherwise in deterministic settings in such a way that if she did, some law of nature would be different.


2019 ◽  
pp. 159-185
Author(s):  
Richard Corry

This chapter shows how the ontology of power and influence can be used to interpret and extend the causal modelling framework developed by Judea Pearl, Peter Spirtes, Clark Glymour, and Richard Scheines. In particular, it is argued that the standard causal modelling framework suffers from an important limitation in that it is not truly modular. A modification to the standard framework is presented that overcomes this limitation. In the modified framework, the basic relations explicitly represent basic causal powers and the influences that they manifest. These ‘causal influence models’ can be used to generate standard causal models, and so can do everything that the standard causal models can do. It is argued, however, that there are both theoretical and practical reasons for preferring causal influence models over standard causal models.


Dialogue ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Larmer
Keyword(s):  

In discussing the relation between miracles and the laws of nature, it is important to make clear what one means when one employs the terms “miracle” and “law of nature”. This is essential, since both terms may be used in a number of different ways. I wish to begin, therefore, by briefly indicating how I shall use these terms. I shall then be in a position t o discuss the relation between these particular concepts of miracles and the laws of nature.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Сергей Ким

In the process of analysis of the full cycle in the conditions of stage - flow system in the final product production, a new number 8.5392 ≈ 8.54 (designated by the letters "ki"), which is universal and constant, was calculated. It can be used in both absolute and relative terms in the analysis and determination of the strategy of development of society and business in particular. In a global sense, any process in the development of society is associated with a beginning and an end, which reflects the well-known law of nature - birth and death. The period of time between these moments can be called as the full cycle. The full cycle in the economy is considered in an inter-industry aspect. Ways to improve the efficiency of the economy in different countries based on the laws of nature and the laws of development of society, business and economy as a whole are substantiated. The full cycle in economy can also be considered in the form of a single company. The main parameters of work of such enterprises in the full cycle chain are defined. It is proposed to create new forms of associations based on the use of the same types of natural raw materials. Some state corporations in Russia such as Rosatom meet these requirements. The found constant number ki ≈ 8.54 is used in classifying businesses, finding the threshold level of unemployment, establishing wage limits between high-paid and low-paid positions, choosing the optimal model for achieving change in any team, predicting the manifestation of the laws of nature, such as the full cycle of coronavirus pandemic and its spread throughout the world. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the importance of social orientation in the activities of the largest entrepreneurs of all countries is noted. В процессе анализа полного цикла в условиях стадийно – поточной системы в производстве конечной продукции вычислено новое число 8,5392 ≈ 8,54 (обозначено буквами «ki»), носящее универсальный и постоянный характер. Оно может использоваться как в абсолютном, так и в относительном выражениях при анализе и определении стратегии развития общества, бизнеса в частности. В глобальном смысле любой процесс в развитии общества связан с началом и концом, который отражает известный закон природы – рождения и смерти. Период времени между этими моментами можно назвать полным циклом. Полный цикл в экономике рассматривается в межотраслевом аспекте. Обоснованы пути повышения эффективности функционирования экономики в различных странах на основе учета законов природы и закономерностей развития общества, бизнеса и экономики в целом. Полный цикл в экономике также рассматривается и в форме единой компании. Определены основные параметры работы таких предприятий по цепочке полного цикла. Предложено создавать новые формы объединений, основанных на использовании одинаковых видов исходного природного сырья. Некоторые Госкорпорации в России отвечают этим требованиям, например, Росатом. Найденное постоянное число «ki» ≈ 8,54 используется при классификации бизнеса, нахождении предельного уровня безработицы, установлении границ заработной платы между высокооплачиваемыми и низкооплачиваемыми должностями, выборе оптимальной модели достижения изменений в любом коллективе, прогнозировании проявления законов природы, например, полного цикла пандемии коронавируса и его распространения во всем мире. В условиях пандемии Covid – 19 отмечается важность социальной ориентации в деятельности крупнейших предпринимателей всех стран.


Author(s):  
A.P. Martinich

Quentin Skinner’s principle that a philosopher’s contemporaries have a privileged perspective on his doctrine is tested. This chapter shows that Hobbes’s contemporaries misinterpreted him on many important issues. The examples used to disconfirm Skinner’s principle have to be ones that have strong textual support and are not currently interpreted by scholars today as being ironic, skeptical, or misleading. Thomas Hobbes’s views about self-preservation and law satisfy the criteria. Contrary to the view of his contemporaries, self-preservation is a desire, a physiological condition, not a law or command. The concept of self-preservation is an important part of the definition of “law of nature.” But the definition is no more a law of nature than the definition of an elephant is an elephant. The content of the laws of nature are deduced from the definition of “a law of nature.”


1987 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Everitt

Traditional discussions of miracles focus primarily on the issue of whether miracle reports are credible, either in fact or in principle, and whether they could be used as the foundation for theistic belief. Some commentators (such as Hume and Mackie decide that such reports are not credible; others decide that they are, or at least that they can be (Swinburne, Davies). All parties to this dispute presuppose that there is a coherent concept of miracle about whose application we might sensibly dispute. A good example of this assumption explicitly stated is found in a recent book by Davies. Davies implicitly takes over Hume's definition of a miracle as ‘a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity’, and, after making clear that he is using ‘impossible’ in the sense of ‘logically impossible’, he comments…it is hard to see that miracles are impossible when considered as violations of the laws of nature…it is hard to see that there is any contradiction involved in saying that they [miracles] have happened. Where would the contradiction lie?


Kant-Studien ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 105 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Watkins

Abstract:In this paper I explore Kant’s understanding of a law of nature. I begin by reviewing Kant’s explicit statements about what a law is in general before describing an important challenge to the very idea of a law of nature that emerges from the conjunction of the natural law tradition and laws of nature in the early modern period. I then articulate how Kant can respond to that challenge by noting how he can draw on a univocal concept of law involving necessity and legislation in articulating his accounts of laws of nature and the moral law. In this way, we not only come to a better appreciation of Kant’s views on the laws of nature, but also see more clearly some significant structural similarities between his theoretical and practical philosophies as a whole.


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