more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 5393
[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 11. Against Laws of Nature
]
Full Idea
If some law which has no exceptions applies to a case, we can never be sure that we have discovered that law and not one to which there are exceptions; also the reign of law would seem to be itself only probable.
Gist of Idea
We can't know that our laws are exceptionless, or even that there are any laws
Source
Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 6)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.36
A Reaction
None of this can be denied. In modern physics, several supposed laws have come up for question. Is the proton stable? Are the gravitational constant or the speed of light necessarily fixed? Russell is doing epistemology. How do we conceive the laws?
The
24 ideas
with the same theme
[rejection of the very idea that there are 'laws' of nature]:
|
14803
|
The more precise the observations, the less reliable appear to be the laws of nature
[Peirce]
|
|
23195
|
Laws of nature are actually formulas of power relations
[Nietzsche]
|
|
14826
|
Modern man wants laws of nature in order to submit to them
[Nietzsche]
|
|
15877
|
The aim of science is just to create a comprehensive, elegant language to describe brute facts
[Poincaré, by Harré]
|
|
14174
|
The laws of motion and gravitation are just parts of the definition of a kind of matter
[Russell]
|
|
5393
|
We can't know that our laws are exceptionless, or even that there are any laws
[Russell]
|
|
18733
|
Laws of nature are an aspect of the phenomena, and are just our mode of description
[Wittgenstein]
|
|
5470
|
The idea of laws of nature arose in the Middle Ages
[Hall,AR, by Ellis]
|
|
15239
|
We could call any generalisation a law, if it had reasonable support and no counter-evidence
[Harré/Madden]
|
|
9426
|
The world is just a vast mosaic of little matters of local particular fact
[Lewis]
|
|
16170
|
To get from facts to equations, we need a prepared descriptions suited to mathematics
[Cartwright,N]
|
|
16178
|
There are few laws for when one theory meets another
[Cartwright,N]
|
|
16181
|
Simple laws have quite different outcomes when they act in combinations
[Cartwright,N]
|
|
11921
|
The laws of nature depend on the powers, not the other way round
[Molnar]
|
|
16558
|
Laws of nature have very little application in biology
[Machamer/Darden/Craver]
|
|
9411
|
There are no laws of nature in Aristotle; they became standard with Descartes and Newton
[Mumford]
|
|
9412
|
You only need laws if you (erroneously) think the world is otherwise inert
[Mumford]
|
|
9439
|
The Central Dilemma is how to explain an internal or external view of laws which govern
[Mumford]
|
|
14985
|
The notion of law doesn't seem to enhance physical theories
[Sider]
|
|
14987
|
Many of the key theories of modern physics do not appear to be 'laws'
[Sider]
|
|
13286
|
There are apparently no scientific laws concerning biological species
[Koslicki]
|
|
14383
|
A 'law of nature' is just a regularity, not some entity that causes the regularity
[Leuridan]
|
|
14554
|
Laws are nothing more than descriptions of the behaviour of powers
[Mumford/Anjum]
|
|
14564
|
If laws are equations, cause and effect must be simultaneous (or the law would be falsified)!
[Mumford/Anjum]
|