structure for all areas    |     expand these ideas

26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / b. Scientific necessity

[natural necessity deriving from essences of kinds]

26 ideas
It is not possible for fire to be cold or snow black [Aristotle]
Boyle and Locke believed corpuscular structures necessitate their powers of interaction [Locke, by Alexander,P]
The corpuscular hypothesis is the best explanation of the necessary connection and co-existence of powers [Locke]
We will only understand substance when we know the necessary connections between powers and qualities [Locke]
For Kant the laws must be necessary, because contingency would destroy representation [Kant, by Meillassoux]
Kant fails to prove the necessity of laws, because his reasoning about chance is over-ambitious [Meillassoux on Kant]
Science confronts the inner necessities of objects [Hegel]
If water is H2O in the actual world, there is no possible world where it isn't H2O [Putnam]
For essentialists, laws of nature are metaphysically necessary, being based on essences of natural kinds [Ellis]
A primary aim of science is to show the limits of the possible [Ellis]
If causal laws describe causal potentialities, the same laws govern properties in all possible worlds [Shoemaker]
If properties are causal, then causal necessity is a species of logical necessity [Shoemaker]
If a world has different causal laws, it must have different properties [Shoemaker]
The scientific discovery (if correct) that gold has atomic number 79 is a necessary truth [Kripke]
Scientific discoveries about gold are necessary truths [Kripke]
Once we've found that heat is molecular motion, then that's what it is, in all possible worlds [Kripke]
Necessary effects will follow from some general theory specifying powers and structure of a world [Harré/Madden]
Humeans say there is no necessity in causation, because denying an effect is never self-contradictory [Harré/Madden]
It is contingent which kinds and powers exist in the world [Molnar]
The necessity of an electron being an electron is conceptual, and won't ground necessary laws [Mumford]
Salt necessarily dissolves in water, because of the law which makes the existence of salt possible [Bird]
If the laws of nature are contingent, shouldn't we already have noticed it? [Meillassoux]
Why are contingent laws of nature stable? [Meillassoux]
There may be necessitation in the world, but causation does not supply it [Mumford/Anjum]
If essence is modal and laws are necessary, essentialist knowledge is found by scientists [Tahko]
Dispositional essentialism allows laws to be different, but only if the supporting properties differ [Vetter]