Are All Laws of Nature Created Equal? Meta-laws Versus More Necessary Laws

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21461661
AutoresSalim Hirèche (0000-0002-2698-7267, University of Geneva), Niels Linnemann (0000-0002-3695-8611, University of Geneva), R Michels (0000-0003-4982-7239, University of Lisbon, autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume90
Fascículo3
Páginas1041-1059
Data de publicação2025-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoErkenntnis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0165-0106 • E-ISSN: 1572-8420
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s10670-023-00739-7
PMID40124305
OpenAlexW4386511631
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas21

Two approaches to elevating certain laws of nature over others have come to prominence recently. On the one hand, according to the meta-laws approach, there are meta-laws, laws which relate to laws as those laws relate to particular facts. On the other hand, according to the modal , or non-absolutist , approach, some laws are necessary in a stricter sense than others. Both approaches play an important role in current research, questioning the ‘orthodoxy’ represented by the leading philosophical theories of natural laws—Humeanism, the DTA view, dispositional essentialism and primitivism. This paper clarifies the relations between these two emerging approaches, as well as their applicability to physical laws and the status of the challenges they pose for standard theories of laws of nature. We first argue that, despite some significant similarities between the two approaches (especially in the context of Lange’s counterfactual account of laws), they are in general distinct and largely independent of each other. Then, we argue that the support for meta-laws from physical theory and practice is more questionable than usually presented

Counterfactual thinking · Epistemology · Essentialism · Natural law · Physical law · Political science · Sociology · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy and Theoretical Science