structure for 'Natural Theory'    |     alphabetical list of themes    |     expand these ideas

26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 2. Types of Laws

[possibility divisions of laws of nature into types]

11 ideas
Seven theories in science: mechanics, heat, electricity, quantum, particles, relativity, life [Heisenberg, by PG]
Some laws are causal (Ohm's Law), but others are conceptual principles (conservation of energy) [Wright,GHv]
Oaken conditional laws, Iron universal laws, and Steel necessary laws [Armstrong, by PG]
Least action is not a causal law, but a 'global law', describing a global essence [Ellis]
Laws can come from data, from theory, from imagination and concepts, or from procedures [Harré]
Are laws of nature about events, or types and universals, or dispositions, or all three? [Harré]
Are laws about what has or might happen, or do they also cover all the possibilities? [Harré]
Laws are either 'strict', or they involve a 'ceteris paribus' clause [Kim]
There are fundamental explanatory laws (false!), and phenomenological laws (regularities) [Cartwright,N, by Bird]
Laws of appearances are 'phenomenological'; laws of reality are 'theoretical' [Cartwright,N]
Laws are either disposition regularities, or relations between properties [Bird]