Abstract
“I cannot conceive how a body devoid of understanding and sense, truly so called, can moderate and determine its own motions, especially so as to make them conformable to laws that it has no knowledge or apprehension of” (Boyle, [1686] 1979, pp. 181–2). With these words Robert Boyle questioned in a very fundamental way the appropriateness of applying the notion of a law to nature, since only intelligent beings are in a position to obey, or not to obey, laws.1 In this paper I rise to the challenge embodied in Boyle’s remark, and attempt to make sense of laws as they are employed in physics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Armstrong, D.M. (1983), What is a Law of Nature?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Bhaskar, Roy (1978), A Realist Theory of Science, Sussex: Harvester
Bigelow, John, Brian Ellis and Caroline Lierse (1992), ‘The World as one of a kind: natural necessity and laws of nature’, British Journal for The Philosophy of Science 43, 371–88
Boyle, Robert ([1663] 1979), ‘A requisite digression concerning those that would exclude the deity from intermeddling with matter’, reprinted in M.A. Stewart (ed.), Selected Philosophical Papers of Robert Boyle, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 155–75
Boyle, Robert ([1685] 1772), ‘High Veneration’, in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Volume V, Thomas Birch (ed.), London: J & F Rivington, 130–57
Boyle, Robert ([1686] 1979), ‘A Free Enquiry into the vulgarly received notion of nature’, reprinted in M.A. Stewart (ed.), Selected Philosophical Papers of Robert Boyle, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 176–91
Boyle, Robert ([1690] 1772), ‘Christian Virtuoso’, in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Volume V, Thomas Birch (ed.), London: J & F Rivington, 508–40
Cartwright, Nancy (1983), How The Laws of Physics Lie, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Cartwright, Nancy (1989), Nature’s Capacities and Their Measurement, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Chalmers, Alan (1993a), ‘The lack of excellency of Boyle’s mechanical philosophy’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 24, 1993, 541–64
Chalmers, Alan (1993b), ‘So the laws of physics needn’t lie’, Australasian Journal ofPhilosophy 71, 1993, 196–205
Christie, Maureen (1994), ‘Philosophers versus Chemists Concerning “Laws of Nature”’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 25, 613–29
Hacking, Ian (1983), Representing and Intervening, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Harré, Rom, and E.H. Madden (1975), Causal Powers, Oxford: Blackwell
Henry, John (1986), ‘Occult qualities and the experimental philosophy: active principles in pre-Newtonian matter theory’, History of Science 24, 1986, 335–81
Hutchison, Keith (1983), ‘Supernaturalism and the mechanical philosophy’, History of Science 21, 1983, 297–333
Maxwell, James Clerk ([1879] 1965), ‘Thomson and Tait’s Natural Philosophy’, The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, Volume 2, W. D. Niven (ed.), New York: Dover, 776–85
Popper, Karl R. (1977), The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London: Hutchinson
Ruby, Jane E. (1986), ‘The origins of scientific “law”’, Journal of the History of Ideas 47, 341–59
Shapin, S. and S. Schaffer (1985), Leviathan and the Air Pump, Princeton: Princeton University Press
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chalmers, A. (1999). Making Sense of Laws of Physics. In: Sankey, H. (eds) Causation and Laws of Nature. Australasian Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9229-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9229-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5303-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9229-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive