The Modal Status of Laws
In Defence of a Hybrid View
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4351749 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tuomas E Tahko (0000-0002-6378-1786, University of Helsinki, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 260 |
| Pages | 509-528 |
| Publication date | 2015-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/pq/pqv006 |
| OpenAlex | W2122850970 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 28 |
Three popular views regarding the modal status of the laws of nature are discussed: Humean Supervenience, nomic necessitation, and scientific/dispositional essentialism. These views are examined especially with regard to their take on the apparent modal force of laws and their ability to explain that modal force. It will be suggested that none of the three views, at least in their strongest form, can be maintained if some laws are metaphysically necessary, but others are metaphysically contingent. Some reasons for thinking that such variation in the modal status of laws exists will be presented with reference to physics. This drives us towards a fourth, hybrid view, according to which there are both necessary and contingent laws. The prospects for such a view are studied.
Epistemology · Essentialism · Metaphysics · Modal · Political science · Sociology · Supervenience · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy and Theoretical Science
How to Be Humean about Idealization Laws
Are All Laws of Nature Created Equal? Meta-laws Versus More Necessary Laws
Possibility Precedes Actuality
Natural kind fundamentalism
The strong arm of the law
In defense of humean non-universal laws
The modal basis of scientific modelling
Laws of Nature
Non-Humeantheories of natural necessity
Laws in Nature
A World of States of Affairs
What is a Law of Nature?
Nature's Metaphysics
Two accounts of laws and time
Dispositional essentialism
The nature of natural laws
The Metaphysics Within Physics
Could the Laws of Nature Change
The Non-Governing Conception of Laws of Nature
Contact with the Nomic
Contact with the Nomic
Scientific essentialism
Interfering With Nomological Necessity
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |