Laws of Nature - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Philosophy

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 8 pages of information about Laws of Nature.

Laws of Nature - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Philosophy

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 8 pages of information about Laws of Nature.
This section contains 2,180 words
(approx. 8 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Laws of Nature Encyclopedia Article

The "laws of nature" are the general ways of working of the physical and mental world. Many natural scientists have as one of their great aims the uncovering of these laws. The topic of laws of nature has been the subject of vigorous discussion in contemporary philosophy. Three broad tendencies have emerged, with a number of important variations within these tendencies.

The Regularity or Humean View

Since the work of David Hume, at least, there have been many philosophers, particularly those in the empiricist tradition, who have tried to analyze both causes and laws (which they tend not to distinguish very clearly) in terms of mere regular successions or other regularities in the behavior of things. Laws tell us that, given a phenomenon of a certain sort, then a further phenomenon of a certain sort must occur in a certain relation to the first...

(read more)

This section contains 2,180 words
(approx. 8 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Laws of Nature Encyclopedia Article
Copyrights
Macmillan
Laws of Nature from Macmillan. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.