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Single Idea 9426
[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 11. Against Laws of Nature
]
Full Idea
The world is a vast mosaic of local matters of particular fact, just one little thing and then another.
Gist of Idea
The world is just a vast mosaic of little matters of local particular fact
Source
David Lewis (Introduction to Philosophical Papers II [1986])
Book Ref
Lewis,David: 'Philosophical Papers Vol.2' [OUP 1986], p.-10
A Reaction
Basing laws on this picture is what Lewis calls 'Humean Supervenience'.
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]
|
9412
|
You only need laws if you (erroneously) think the world is otherwise inert
[Mumford]
|
9411
|
There are no laws of nature in Aristotle; they became standard with Descartes and Newton
[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]
|