Full Idea
I suspect that what we mean by 'mass' and 'matter' depends on our identifying the existence of laws of inertia and gravity; hence the idea of a world without laws is incoherent, for there to be anything at all there must be some laws and some kinds.
Gist of Idea
Existence requires laws, as inertia or gravity are needed for mass or matter
Source
Alexander Bird (Philosophy of Science [1998], Ch.3)
Book Reference
Bird,Alexander: 'Philosophy of Science' [UCL Press 2000], p.113
A Reaction
I find this counterintuitive. Reasonably stable existence requires something reasonably like laws. We only understand the physical world because we interact with it. But neither of those is remotely as strong as Bird's claim.