5. Universals: Laws Grounded in Nature

Author: van Fraassen, Bas C.

Source: Laws and Symmetry, November 1989 , pp. 94-129(36)

Publisher: Oxford Scholarship Online Monographs

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Abstract:

Universals accounts of laws of nature begin with a robust anti-nominalism: there are real properties and relations that are to be distinguished from sets or arbitrary classifications. Those real entities are then drawn on to provide a concept of laws operative in nature. Accounts of this sort here critically examined include those of Fred Dretske, Michael Tooley, and David Armstrong. These accounts display most saliently the impossibility of a simultaneous metaphysical solution to the joint problems of inference and of identification. Special attention is given to the failures of David Armstrong's account of probabilistic laws and of Michael Tooley's concept of probability inspired by Rudolf Carnap's views.

Keywords: Michael Tooley; Rudolf Carnap; anti-nominalism; David Armstrong; properties; probability; universals; Fred Dretske; chance

Document Type: Research article

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