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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Gerhard Schurz on Natural Laws - Dictionary of Arguments
I 93 Natural Law/Schurz: Strict spatiotemporally unrestricted all propositions are candidates for natural laws. If they were true, they would express real laws of nature. They are called law-like. I 94 Law-like/Schurz: Spatiotemporally unrestricted Ex All bodies attract each other. Bsp All living beings must die once. Spatiotemporally limited: Bsp Mammals in polar regions have a rounder shape compared to conspecifics in warmer regions (Germann's law). Scientificity/Schurz: depends here on the size of the area. Allsatz/Schurz: In order to avoid gradual differences, one spoke of fundamental and derived Allsätze Def Fundamental All Theorem/Carnap/Hempel: contains no individual constants and no spatiotemporal restrictions. >Individual constants. Def Derived All Theorem/Carnap/Hempel: a derived all theorem can be derived from background knowledge from other all theorems together with singular initial conditions. >Initial conditions. I 95 Ernest NagelVsCarnap/NagelVsHempel: According to this, also an accidental all theorem can be a derived law: Ex "All screws on Smith's car are rusty". Solution/E. Nagel: Only fundamental all propositions can be laws. Hempel: conceded that, thus law-likeness remains gradual! Law-like/statistics/Schurz: also here there is law-likeness: Ex 50 % of all caesium 137 atoms have decayed after 30 years. Example 80 % of all lung cancer patients were heavy smokers._____________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. |
Schu I G. Schurz Einführung in die Wissenschaftstheorie Darmstadt 2006 |
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> Counter arguments against Schurz
> Counter arguments in relation to Natural Laws
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-29