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26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 3. Laws and Generalities

[differences between general truths and real laws]

8 ideas
We don't use laws to make predictions, we call things laws if we make predictions with them [Goodman]
Newton's First Law refers to bodies not acted upon by a force, but there may be no such body [Armstrong]
Laws of nature are just descriptions of how things are disposed to behave [Ellis]
Lawlike sentences are general attributions of disposition to all members of some class [Fetzer]
Natural laws result from eliminative induction, where enumerative induction gives generalisations [Cohen,LJ, by Psillos]
Without laws, how can a dispositionalist explain general behaviour within kinds? [Mumford]
"All gold cubes are smaller than one cubic mile" is a true universal generalisation, but not a law [Psillos]
Pragmatic laws allow prediction and explanation, to the extent that reality is stable [Leuridan]