more from Bertrand Russell

Single Idea 5393

[catalogued under 26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 11. Against Laws of Nature]

Full Idea

If some law which has no exceptions applies to a case, we can never be sure that we have discovered that law and not one to which there are exceptions; also the reign of law would seem to be itself only probable.

Gist of Idea

We can't know that our laws are exceptionless, or even that there are any laws

Source

Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 6)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.36


A Reaction

None of this can be denied. In modern physics, several supposed laws have come up for question. Is the proton stable? Are the gravitational constant or the speed of light necessarily fixed? Russell is doing epistemology. How do we conceive the laws?