No God, No Powers

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-426
Author(s):  
James Orr ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Nancy Cartwright ◽  
Modal Force ◽  
Metaphysical Naturalism ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Dispositional Properties

One common feature of debates about the best metaphysical analysis of putatively lawful phenomena is the suspicion that nomic realists who locate the modal force of such phenomena in quasi-causal necessitation relations between universals are working with a model of law that cannot convincingly erase its theological pedigree. Nancy Cartwright distills this criticism into slogan form: no God, no laws. Some have argued that a more plausible alternative for nomic realists who reject theism is to ground laws of nature in the fundamental dispositional properties or “pure powers” of physical objects. This article argues that for all its advantages over deflationary and rival realist accounts, a pandispositionalist account of law cuts against the commitment to metaphysical naturalism that its supporters almost always presuppose. It then examines and rejects a Platonic version of this account before elaborating and advancing a theistic alternative that is more theoretically powerful and more metatheoretically parsimonious. In slogan form: no God, no powers.

scholarly journals Dispositional Pluralism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McKitrick
Keyword(s):  
Character Traits ◽  
Dispositional Property ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Do So ◽  
Dispositional Properties

Dispositional Pluralism is the view that dispositional properties are abundant and diverse. When something has a disposition, it is such that, if it were in a certain kind of circumstance, a certain kind of effect would occur. Dispositions include such varied properties as character traits like a hero’s courage, characteristics of physical objects like a wine glass’s fragility, and characteristics of microphysical entities like an electron’s charge. Some dispositions are natural while others are non-natural. Some dispositions called “powers” are ungrounded while non-fundamental dispositions are grounded in other properties. Some dispositions manifest constantly, some of them manifest spontaneously, while others manifest only when they are triggered to do so. Some dispositions manifest by causing another dispositional property to be instantiated, while others have manifestations that involve non-dispositional properties and relations. Some dispositions are intrinsic to their bearers while others are extrinsic. Some of them are causally relevant to their manifestations while others are not. Some dispositions manifest in some particular way in particular circumstances, while other dispositions manifest in various ways in various circumstances. What makes all of these diverse properties dispositions is their connection to a certain kind of counterfactual fact. Nevertheless, disposition ascriptions are not semantically reducible to counterfactual claims.

The Lawless Frontier

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Gelernter
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Nancy Cartwright

Rethinking Order: After the Laws of Nature, edited by Nancy Cartwright and Keith Ward, is a collection of recent essays about the philosophy of science. Daniel Gelernter offers a critical review.

Against Necessitarianism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McKitrick
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
The World ◽  
Dispositional Properties

The laws of nature are at most physically necessary, and they are not metaphysically necessary. Dispositional Essentialists claim that if natural laws derive from powers, then the laws of nature are metaphysically necessary. But the idea that properties have dispositional essences does not entail necessitarianism for several reasons. There might be no laws of nature. The laws might have exceptions, or be probabilistic. There are non-dispositional properties that could figure in contingent laws. The world might have contained different properties. Finally, even if a property has a dispositional essence, it might have had a slightly different causal profile. Furthermore, the Necessitarian’s views are less revisionary than they initially seem.

scholarly journals Varieties of dispositional essentialism about natural laws

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salim Hirèche
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Laws ◽  
Relative Position ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Important Task ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
Natural Entities ◽  
The World ◽  
Dispositional Essentialism ◽  
Modal Force ◽  
Internal Comparison

AbstractAn important task for metaphysicians and philosophers of science is to account for laws of nature – in particular, how they distinguish themselves from ‘mere’ regularities, and the modal force they are endowed with, ‘natural necessity’. Dispositional essentialism about laws (for short: ‘essentialism’) is roughly the view that laws distinguish themselves by being grounded in the essences of natural entities (e.g. kinds, properties). This paper does not primarily concern how essentialism compares to its main rivals – Humeanism and Armstrongeanism. Rather, it distinguishes and comparatively assesses various brands of essentialism – which mainly differ as to where exactly they take laws to find their essentialist sources (e.g. in particular entities, like electrons, or in larger pluralities of entities, or in the world as a whole), and what they take to be the targets of laws, namely what they apply to. Yet, this internal comparison is not unrelated to the more general debate about laws: the main criteria with which I compare these essentialist views concern how they can deal with some of the main objections faced by essentialism in general (the modal status it typically attributes to laws, which some think is too strong; and its alleged incapacity to account for the most 'general' laws, like conservation laws), and how they can keep what is arguably the main intuitive advantage of essentialism over its rivals (the fact that, on this view, things “govern themselves”). Thus, the paper also concerns the relative position of essentialism in the larger debate about laws – ultimately bringing support to it.

scholarly journals Laws, Exceptions and Dispositions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Kistler
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Natural Property ◽  
Fundamental Physics ◽  
Dispositional Properties

Can laws of nature be universal regularities and nevertheless have exceptions? Several answers to this question, in particular the thesis that there are no laws outside of fundamental physics, are examined and rejected. It is suggested that one can account for exceptions by conceiving of laws as strictly universal determination relations between (instances of) properties. When a natural property is instantiated, laws of nature give rise to other, typically dispositional properties. In exceptional situations, such properties manifest themselves either in an unusual way or not at all.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Peter Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Scientific Explanations ◽  
Metaphysical Naturalism ◽  
The Difference

The introduction to this volume begins with some preliminary distinctions and definitions before offering a description of the content of individual chapters and how they relate to each other and to the overall themes of the book. It briefly explores definitions of naturalism, providing an account of the difference between methodological and metaphysical naturalism. It also explains how and when a distinction between ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’ first emerged, and the different ways in which that distinction has been deployed in scientific explanations. The key concept of laws of nature, which is central to a number of chapters, is also briefly introduced.

scholarly journals Measurement Theory, Nomological Machine And Measurement Uncertainties (In Classical Physics)

2013 ◽  
pp. 167-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ave Mets
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Empirical Reality ◽  
Nancy Cartwright ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Or Practice

Measurement is said to be the basis of exact sciences as the process of assigning numbers to matter (things or their attributes), thus making it possible to apply the mathematically formulated laws of nature to the empirical world. Mathematics and empiria are best accorded to each other in laboratory experiments which function as what Nancy Cartwright calls nomological machine: an arrangement generating (mathematical) regularities. On the basis of accounts of measurement errors and uncertainties, I will argue for two claims: 1) Both fundamental laws of physics, corresponding to ideal nomological machine, and phenomenological laws, corresponding to material nomological machine, lie, being highly idealised relative to the empirical reality; and also laboratory measurement data do not describe properties inherent to the world independently of human understanding of it. 2) Therefore the naive, representational view of measurement and experimentation should be replaced with a more pragmatic or practice-based view.

Dispositional Properties of Metaphor

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam K. Fetterman ◽  
Brian P. Meier ◽  
Michael D. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Positive Affect ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Taste Preferences ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Prosocial Motivation ◽  
Sweet Food ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Sweet Foods ◽  
Dispositional Properties

Abstract. Metaphors often characterize prosocial actions and people as sweet. Three studies sought to explore whether conceptual metaphors of this type can provide insights into the prosocial trait of agreeableness and into daily life prosociality. Study 1 (n = 698) examined relationships between agreeableness and food taste preferences. Studies 2 (n = 66) and 3 (n = 132) utilized daily diary protocols. In Study 1, more agreeable people liked sweet foods to a greater extent. In Study 2, greater sweet food preferences predicted a stronger positive relationship between daily prosocial behaviors and positive affect, a pattern consistent with prosocial motivation. Finally, Study 3 found that daily prosocial feelings and behaviors varied positively with sweet food consumption in a manner that could not be ascribed to positive affect or self-control. Altogether, the findings encourage further efforts to extend conceptual metaphor theory to the domain of personality processes, in part by building on balance-related ideas.

GENERATION AND PROPERTIES OF INFRARED RADIATION

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-137
Author(s):  
RUSTAM KHAKIMOVICH RAKHIMOV
Keyword(s):  
Electromagnetic Radiation ◽  
Infrared Radiation ◽  
Radiation Spectrum ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Ceramic Materials ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Ir Radiation ◽  
Scattering Of Light

The article presents the main basic laws of nature and modern theories of the nature of electromagnetic radiation, its generation, characteristics, and laws of reflection, absorption and scattering of light. The principle of transformation of the radiation spectrum of the primary source using the developed ceramic materials are shown, as well as experimental results of the interaction of IR radiation with matter and various mechanisms of influence on various objects and processes are described.

INEVITABILITY OF REVIVAL: PRO AND COUNTER ANTINATALISM

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-88
Author(s):  
Nikolay S. Savkin
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Arthur Schopenhauer ◽  
Expected Effect ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
Active Subject ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Natural Way

Introduction. Radical pessimism and militant anti-natalism of Arthur Schopenhauer and David Benathar create an optimistic philosophy of life, according to which life is not meaningless. It is given by nature in a natural way, and a person lives, studies, works, makes a career, achieves results, grows, develops. Being an active subject of his own social relations, a person does not refuse to continue the race, no matter what difficulties, misfortunes and sufferings would be experienced. Benathar convinces that all life is continuous suffering, and existence is constant dying. Therefore, it is better not to be born. Materials and Methods. As the main theoretical and methodological direction of research, the dialectical materialist and integrative approaches are used, the realization of which, in conjunction with the synergetic technique, provides a certain result: is convinced that the idea of anti-natalism is inadequate, the idea of giving up life. A systematic approach and a comprehensive assessment of the studied processes provide for the disclosure of the contradictory nature of anti-natalism. Results of the study are presented in the form of conclusions that human life is naturally given by nature itself. Instincts, needs, interests embodied in a person, stimulate to active actions, and he lives. But even if we finish off with all of humanity by agreement, then over time, according to the laws of nature and according to evolutionary theory, man will inevitably, objectively, and naturally reappear. Discussion and Conclusion. The expected effect of the idea of inevitability of rebirth can be the formation of an optimistic orientation of a significant part of the youth, the idea of continuing life and building happiness, development. As a social being, man is universal, and the awareness of this universality allows one to understand one’s purpose – continuous versatile development.

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