Psychology Dictionary of Arguments

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Laws: A. Laws are rules created and enforced by governments to regulate behavior, protect people's rights, and promote order and justice in society. - B. Laws of nature are fundamental principles that describe how the universe works. They are universal and unchanging. - C. The status of laws in the individual sciences is controversial, since they may only describe regularities. See also Natural laws, Regularities, Principles.
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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.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Nancy Cartwright on Laws - Dictionary of Arguments

I 12
Theoretical Laws/Cartwright: determine the contribution of individual causes.
I 12
Physical Laws/Cartwright: do not determine facts - because they are tailored for individual areas. >Causes
, >Facts.
I 46f
Physical Laws/(s)/Laws of Nature/LoN/Cartwright: never exclusively valid - E.g. Snell's law of refraction of light at the interface between two dielectric materials: different with isotropic/anisotropic optical properties.
In the textbook at first only the 1st version - this then not literal -> principle of charity.
Important argument: most cases fall under the 2nd version - therefore, "ceteris paribus" here particularly bad.
>ceteris paribus, >Literal truth, >Theories, >Models, >Description.
I 50f
Law/Science/Physics/LoN/Explanation/Cartwright: there are never enough laws, because we have no theory about what happens at the boundary regions of E.g. optics, genetics, hydrodynamics, laser theory, etc. - there are no laws for cases where theories overlap.
I 55
Biology/Laws/Cartwright: its laws actually state - unlike those of physics - how objects of the theory behave: - E.g. swordfish hides during the day - Smart: Thesis: Biology has no own laws.
I 111
Law/Truth/Cartwright: if there was a law that covers one case exactly, it would hardly apply to any other case.
I 139
Law/Physics/Cartwright: the laws of physics lie, because we destroy our image by adapting mathematical structures.
>Structures.

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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.

Car I
N. Cartwright
How the laws of physics lie Oxford New York 1983

CartwrightR I
R. Cartwright
A Neglected Theory of Truth. Philosophical Essays, Cambridge/MA pp. 71-93
In
Theories of Truth, Paul Horwich, Aldershot 1994

CartwrightR II
R. Cartwright
Ontology and the theory of meaning Chicago 1954


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