Part I. Are There Laws of Nature?

Author: van Fraassen, Bas C.

Source: Laws and Symmetry, November 1989 , pp. 15-17(3)

Publisher: Oxford Scholarship Online Monographs

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Abstract:

Metaphysicians speak of laws of nature in terms of necessity and universality, and that conception played a role in the birth of modern physics some centuries ago, but today physicists speak in terms of symmetry, transformations, and invariance. Laws and Symmetry's three main objectives are: first, to show the failure of current philosophical accounts of laws of nature; second, to refute arguments for the reality of laws of nature; third, to contrib ute to an epistemology and a philosophy of science antithetical to such metaphysical notions. The latter involves an inquiry into the character and role of symmetry and of symmetry arguments in the physical sciences.

Keywords: philosophy of science; invariance; epistemology; philosophy of physics; laws of nature; necessity; symmetry

Document Type: Research article

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