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Full Idea
Is Newton's First Law about what has actually happened or is it about what might, or could possibly happen? Is it about the actual events and states of the world, or possible events and states?
Gist of Idea
Are laws about what has or might happen, or do they also cover all the possibilities?
Source
Rom Harré (Laws of Nature [1993], 2)
Book Ref
Harré,Rom: 'Laws of Nature' [Duckworth 1993], p.39
A Reaction
I presume the first sentence distinguishes between what 'might (well)' happen, and what 'could (just) possibly happen'. I take it for granted that laws predict the actual future. The question is are they true of situations which will never occur?
17549 | Seven theories in science: mechanics, heat, electricity, quantum, particles, relativity, life [Heisenberg, by PG] |
8365 | Some laws are causal (Ohm's Law), but others are conceptual principles (conservation of energy) [Wright,GHv] |
17690 | Oaken conditional laws, Iron universal laws, and Steel necessary laws [Armstrong, by PG] |
6616 | Least action is not a causal law, but a 'global law', describing a global essence [Ellis] |
15862 | Laws can come from data, from theory, from imagination and concepts, or from procedures [Harré] |
15870 | Are laws of nature about events, or types and universals, or dispositions, or all three? [Harré] |
15871 | Are laws about what has or might happen, or do they also cover all the possibilities? [Harré] |
3407 | Laws are either 'strict', or they involve a 'ceteris paribus' clause [Kim] |
6781 | There are fundamental explanatory laws (false!), and phenomenological laws (regularities) [Cartwright,N, by Bird] |
16166 | Laws of appearances are 'phenomenological'; laws of reality are 'theoretical' [Cartwright,N] |
9488 | Laws are either disposition regularities, or relations between properties [Bird] |