more from Sydney Shoemaker

Single Idea 15093

[catalogued under 26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 5. Laws from Universals]

Full Idea

One way to get the conclusion that laws are necessary is to combine my view of properties with the view of Armstrong, Dretske and Tooley, that laws are, or assert, relations between properties.

Gist of Idea

We might say laws are necessary by combining causal properties with Armstrong-Dretske-Tooley laws

Source

Sydney Shoemaker (Causal and Metaphysical Necessity [1998], I)

Book Reference

Shoemaker,Sydney: 'Identity, Cause and Mind' [OUP 2003], p.409


A Reaction

This is interesting, because Armstrong in particular wants the necessity to arise from relations between properties as universals, but if we define properties causally, and make them necessary, we might get the same result without universals.