Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Laws of Nature, philosophy: laws of nature (physical laws) are descriptions of dependencies of physical quantities among each other. From the fact that these are descriptions, it follows that these are no regulations in the sense of e.g. legal regulations. N. Goodman suggests in “Fact, Fiction and Forecast” (1954) that natural laws should be formulated in the form of irreal conditional sentences (also known as counterfactual conditionals); If A were the case, B would have been the case. See also counterfactual conditionals, irreal conditionals, laws, lawlikeness, law statements._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Hennig Genz on Natural Laws - Dictionary of Arguments
II 12 Natural Laws/Genz: natural laws claim connections of observations. Logical form: temporal conditionals. >Conditionals. For example, when an object... falls... it reaches the speed of about..." This is traceable to observation sentences that use only the simplest properties. Not everything on the measuring device needs to be known exactly. >Generalization, >Generality. Physical law/Genz: each physical law is identical to the totality of the connections of base sentences it implies. Then also differently formulated theories are possibly the same. >Measurements, >Theories, >Laws._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Gz I H. Genz Gedankenexperimente Weinheim 1999 Gz II Henning Genz Wie die Naturgesetze Wirklichkeit schaffen. Über Physik und Realität München 2002 |
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> Counter arguments against Genz
> Counter arguments in relation to Natural Laws
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-29