[Revised entry by Alexander Reutlinger, Gerhard Schurz, Andreas Hüttemann, and Siegfried Jaag on February 8, 2024.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Laws of nature take center stage in philosophy of science and metaphysics. Laws are usually believed to stand in tight relations to many philosophical key concepts such as causation, explanation, confirmation, determinism, and counterfactuals. Traditionally, philosophers have focused on physical laws, which were taken to be at least true, universal statements that support counterfactual claims. But, although this claim about laws might be true with respect to physics, laws in the special sciences (such as biology, psychology,…
Originally appeared on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Read More
