Full Idea
For Psillos, properties in mature science are defined by the laws in which they feature.
Gist of Idea
Scientific properties are defined by the laws that embody them
Source
report of Stathis Psillos (Scientific Realism [1999]) by J Ladyman / D Ross - Every Thing Must Go 3.5
Book Reference
Ladyman,J/Ross,D: 'Every Thing Must Go' [OUP 2007], p.156
A Reaction
This is a perfect example of the Humean approach getting everything the wrong way round. Laws are not primitives from which we derive our account of nature - they are generalisations built up from the behaviour of prior properties.