Laws and Lawmakers

Laws and Lawmakers
Author: Marc Lange
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2009-07-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019974503X

What distinguishes laws of nature from ordinary facts? What are the "lawmakers": the facts in virtue of which the laws are laws? How can laws be necessary, yet contingent? Lange provocatively argues that laws are distinguished by their necessity, which is grounded in primitive subjunctive facts, while also providing a non-technical and accessible survey of the field.

Nature's Metaphysics

Nature's Metaphysics
Author: Alexander Bird
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2007-08-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199227012

Bird, a world-leader in the field, offers an original approach to key issues in philosophy. He discusses hot topics in metaphysics and the philosophy of science.

Readings on Laws of Nature

Readings on Laws of Nature
Author: John W. Carroll
Publisher:
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2004
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780822958529

As a subject of inquiry, laws of nature exist in the overlap between metaphysics and the philosophy of science. Over the past three decades, this area of study has become increasingly central to the philosophy of science. It also has relevance to a variety of topics in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and epistemology. Readings on Laws of Nature is the first anthology to offer a contemporary history of the problem of laws. The book is organized around three key issues: the matter of distinguishing laws from mere correlations, questions concerning inductive reasoning and laws, and the consideration of whether there are any true laws in science. Designed for class use, the anthology covers a remarkably broad range of views and concerns, and consists exclusively of articles that have proved highly influential in the field. Readings on Laws of Nature will also serve as a valuable research and reference tool for philosophers who do not specialize in the subject, but who have occasion to examine concepts relating to the laws of nature in their own work.

Kant and the Laws of Nature

Kant and the Laws of Nature
Author: Michela Massimi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2017-03-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107120985

This volume of new essays explores Kant's views on the laws of nature.

Laws of Nature

Laws of Nature
Author: John W. Carroll
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 1994-02-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521433341

John Carroll undertakes a careful philosophical examination of laws of nature, causation, and other related topics. He argues that laws of nature are not susceptible to the sort of philosophical treatment preferred by empiricists. Indeed he shows that empirically pure matters of fact need not even determine what the laws are. Similar, even stronger, conclusions are drawn about causation. Replacing the traditional view of laws and causation requiring some kind of foundational legitimacy, the author argues that these phenomena are inextricably intertwined with everything else.

What is a Law of Nature?

What is a Law of Nature?
Author: D. M. Armstrong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2016-08-26
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1107142318

This book is D. M. Armstrong's influential defense of his original theory of what a law of nature is.

Causation and Laws of Nature

Causation and Laws of Nature
Author: Max Kistler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2006-09-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134150687

What is a causal relation? -- Laws of nature and universal generalisations -- Applicability conditions and the concept of strict law -- Consequences -- The nomological theory of causation and causal responsibility -- Efficacious properties and the instantiation of laws -- Causal responsibility and its applications.

Laws in Nature

Laws in Nature
Author: Stephen Mumford
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2004-08-02
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1134386516

This book outlines a major new theory of natural laws and addresses questions currently being debated by metaphysicians.

Laws of Nature

Laws of Nature
Author: Walter R. Ott
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2018
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198746776

Twelve brand-new essays by an international team of leading philosophers examine central questions on the laws of nature, such as: what is the origin of the concept of a law of nature? How much does it owe to theology and metaphysics? And, are there exceptions to the laws of nature?

Rethinking Order

Rethinking Order
Author: Nancy Cartwright
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2016-06-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1474244084

This book presents a radical new picture of natural order. The Newtonian idea of a cosmos ruled by universal and exceptionless laws has been superseded; replaced by a conception of nature as a realm of diverse powers, potencies, and dispositions, a 'dappled world'. There is order in nature, but it is more local, diverse, piecemeal, open, and emergent than Newton imagined. In each chapter expert authors expound the historical context of the idea of laws of nature, and explore the diverse sorts of order actually presupposed by work in physics, biology, and the social sciences. They consider how human freedom might be understood, and explore how Newton's idea of a 'universal designer' might be revised, in this new context. They argue that there is not one unified totalizing program of science, aiming at the completion of one closed causal system. We live in an ordered universe, but we need to rethink the classical idea of the 'laws of nature' in a more dynamic and creatively diverse way.