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Journal article

The strong arm of the law : a unified account of necessary and contingent laws of nature

  • Hirèche, Salim Département de philosophie, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Linnemann, Niels Institut für Philosophie, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany - Rotman Institute of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
  • Michels, Robert Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera - Institut für Philosophie, Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • Vogt, Lisa Facultat de Filosofia, Universitat de Barcelona, LOGOS, Barcelona, Spain - Institut für Philosophie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany - Theologische Fakultät, Universität Luzern, Luzern, Switzerland
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    29.06.2021
Published in:
  • Synthese. - Springer. - 2021, no. 199, p. 10211–10252
Laws of nature
Metaphysical necessity
Nomic necessity
Necessitarianism about laws of nature
Kinematical/dynamical distinction
English A common feature of all standard theories of the laws of nature is that they are ‘absolutist’: They take laws to be either all metaphysically necessary or all contingent. Science, however, gives us reason to think that there are laws of both kinds, suggesting that standard theories should make way for ‘non-absolutist’ alternatives: theories which accommodate laws of both modal statuses. In this paper, we set out three explanatory challenges for any candidate non-absolutist theory, and discuss the prospects of the two extant candidates in light of these challenges.We then develop our own non-absolutist theory, the essentialist DTA account, which combines the nomicnecessitation or DTA account with an essentialist approach to metaphysical modality in order to meet the three explanatory challenges. Finally, we argue that the distinction between kinematical and dynamical laws found in physical theories supports both non-absolutism in general and our proposed essentialist DTA view in particular.
Language
  • English
Classification
Philosophy, psychology
License
CC BY
Open access status
hybrid
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1319399
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