Single Idea 9506

[catalogued under 26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / b. Scientific necessity]

Full Idea

We cannot have a world where it is true both that salt exists (which requires Coulomb's Law to be true), and that it fails to dissolve in water (which requires Coulomb's Law to be false). So the dissolving is necessary even if the Law is contingent.

Gist of Idea

Salt necessarily dissolves in water, because of the law which makes the existence of salt possible

Source

Alexander Bird (Nature's Metaphysics [2007], 8.2)

Book Reference

Bird,Alexander: 'Nature's Metaphysics' [OUP 2007], p.178


A Reaction

Excellent. It is just like the bonfire on the Moon (imaginable through ignorance, but impossible). People who assert that the solubility of salt is contingent tend not to know much about chemistry.