Phil 8: Introduction to Philosophy of Science

Outline 25: Introduction to Laws of Nature

I. Candidate Law Statements

A. Consider the following statements:

a. All gases, kept in closed containers of fixed size, exert greater
pressure when heated.
b. In all closed systems the quantity of energy remains constant.
c. No signals travel faster than light.
d. All of the apples in my refrigerator are yellow.
e. All Apache basketry is made by women.
f. No golden spheres have masses greater than 100,000 kilograms.
g. No enriched uranium sphere has a mass greater than 100,000
kilograms.
h. All bachelors are unmarried.
B. Statements a, b, c, and g seem intuitively like statements of laws of nature.
C. Statements d, e, f, on the other hand, are not statements of laws of nature.
These kind of statements are sometimes called “accidental generalizations”.
D. Statement h is also not a law of nature. It’s an analytic truth.

II. Tentative Theory of Laws of Nature

A. Law statements are true.

B. Law statements are universal generalizations. (Is this right?)

C. Law statements contain only non-local terms. (Is this right?)

D. Law statements are not analytic.

III. Test for Lawhood

A. Laws of nature are supposed to support counterfactuals.

B. Laws of nature are supposed to support possibility/necessity claims.

i. P is possible if and only if ~P is not necessary.

ii. P is necessary if and only if ~P is not possible.
iii. There are lots of different types of possibility/necessity. We are
interested in physical possibility.

C. Laws of nature are supposed to play a crucial role in scientific explanation.

D. By this test, a, b, c, and g count as laws. D, e, f, and h don’t.
E. Our tentative theory of laws of nature incorrectly counts f as a law statement.