Combining Texts

Ideas for 'poems', 'Dispositions and Powers' and 'Phenomenology of Spirit'

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3 ideas

26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 7. Strictness of Laws
Hume's Dictum says no connections are necessary - so mass and spacetime warping could separate [Friend/Kimpton-Nye]
     Full Idea: Hume's Dictum says there are no necessary connections between existences, …and also between the distinct properties that individuals instantiate. …It follows that an object's property of mass and its disposition to warp space-time could come apart.
     From: Friend/Kimpton-Nye (Dispositions and Powers [2023], 3.2)
     A reaction: [compressed] This nicely pinpoints the heart of the Humean view, to which scientific essentialists and fans of powers in nature object. The objectors include me.
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / a. Scientific essentialism
The movement of pure essences constitutes the nature of scientific method [Hegel]
     Full Idea: The movement of pure essences constitutes the nature of scientific method in general.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Phenomenology of Spirit [1807], Pref 34)
     A reaction: This would appear to be precisely the idea of scientific essentialism - if he is saying that science seeks to understand the movement (or power) of essences as they occur in nature.
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / b. Scientific necessity
Science confronts the inner necessities of objects [Hegel]
     Full Idea: Scientific cognition demands surrender to the life of the object, or, what amounts to the same thing, confronting and expressing its inner necessity.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Phenomenology of Spirit [1807], Pref 53)
     A reaction: This strikes me as being a much better account of what science tries to do than all the modern talk about laws and theories.