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26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 7. Strictness of Laws

[whether laws are necessary, or their truth is qualified]

12 ideas
Nothing can break the binding laws of eternity [Lucretius]
God has established laws throughout nature, and implanted ideas of them within us [Descartes]
A 'law of nature' is just something which is physically necessary [Chisholm]
Laws describe abstract idealisations, not the actual mess of nature [Harré]
We take it that only necessary happenings could be laws [Harré]
Must laws of nature be universal, or could they be local? [Harré]
Being lawlike seems to resist formal analysis, because there are always counter-examples [Harré/Madden]
If there are no finks or antidotes at the fundamental level, the laws can't be ceteris paribus [Burge, by Corry]
Strict laws make causation logically necessary [Maslin]
Strict laws allow no exceptions and are part of a closed system [Maslin]
A 'ceteris paribus' clause implies that a conditional only has dispositional force [Mumford/Anjum]
Hume's Dictum says no connections are necessary - so mass and spacetime warping could separate [Friend/Kimpton-Nye]