display all the ideas for this combination of philosophers
2 ideas
8656 | The laws of number are not laws of nature, but are laws of the laws of nature [Frege] |
Full Idea: The laws of number are not applicable to external things, and are not laws of nature, but they are applicable to judgements of external things: they are laws of the laws of nature. | |
From: Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884], §87) | |
A reaction: We seem to be somewhere between pythagoreanism and 'the mind of God'. I feel fairly strongly that we are looking through the wrong end of the telescope here. The laws of nature 'emerge' from nature, and high-level abstractions emerge with them. |
3977 | Laws are true generalisations which support counterfactuals and are confirmed by instances [Fodor] |
Full Idea: Laws are true generalisations that support counterfactuals and are confirmed by their instances. | |
From: Jerry A. Fodor (Jerry A. Fodor on himself [1994], p.293) | |
A reaction: This seems correct, but it doesn't disentangle laws as mental states from laws as features of nature |