Summary
Science is sometimes defined as the systematic study of the physical world to discover the laws of nature. Laws embody generalizations connecting different phenomena, often involving a causal link between one concept and another. I suggest that much of science, in fact, depends on the opposite idea: the “unlaw,” defined as the proposition that two variables have no causal or mathematical link with one another. This idea unifies such apparently distinct notions as thought experiments, conservation principles in physics, and experimental design paradigms in the life sciences, as well as highlighting the importance of diversity in the human condition. I propose that the importance of unlaws be acknowledged and that this category be given due consideration in the philosophy of science, where it may help to resolve certain persistent misunderstandings.
“Dark matter.” This work is a cylindrical piece made of resin and fluorescent powder. The diameter of this work is 7 cm, and the height is 2.5 cm. The photo is taken at night without light and wants to convey the concept that dark matter is a kind of fluid in cosmology and it has no infrastructure. The idea that dark matter is made of a particle may or may not exist. At present we have no observations to say that dark matter must have a microscopic infrastructure. Dark matter is a purely scientific hypothesis and may be wrong.
[Adapted with permission from the Association of Science and Art (ASA), USERN; Made by Sepideh Sargoli].
The code of this chapter is 01101001 01101110 01110010 01000010 01100111 01100100 01100111 01101001.
“They gave it me,” Humpty Dumpty continued thoughtfully, as he crossed one knee over the other and clasped his hands round it, “they gave it me – for an un-birthday present.”
“I beg your pardon?” Alice said with a puzzled air.
“I’m not offended,” said Humpty Dumpty.
“I mean, what is an un-birthday present?”
“A present given when it isn’t your birthday, of course.”
Alice considered a little. “I like birthday presents best,” she said at last.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” cried Humpty Dumpty.
Alice through the Looking Glass
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- 1.
Statistical independence is sometimes confused with orthogonality, in which two variables have zero correlation. Independence is a more stringent condition: two variables can be orthogonal, but functionally connected and therefore not independent (e.g. the graph of y = x2 in the range x = −1 to +1).
- 2.
This aim is not always successfully achieved. An internet search for ‘the replication crisis in psychology’ will indicate the extent of the problem.
- 3.
Note, however, that laboratories are not always enough. Ethology, the study of animals in their natural environment, is essential to a full understanding of their behaviour, just as sociology and anthropology complement experimental psychology. Science is a broad church.
- 4.
And it can be shown to be a mathematical consequence of the invariance of the laws of mechanics under rotation, reflection and similarity transformations.
- 5.
More usually referred to as ‘linearity’. Scientists dread nonlinearity like a vampire dreads garlic.
- 6.
True, that is, if we accept it as giving the mass of an electron to within the level of precision implied by three places of decimals.
- 7.
Most, but not all. The physicist Geoffrey Chew claimed that it should be possible to deduce the properties of subatomic particles by logic, from the demand that the laws of nature must be self-consistent. His so-called “bootstrap” method scored some successes, but ultimately failed to gain general acceptance.
- 8.
By “identity” I mean any way of distinguishing a given set of electrons: this one here, that one over there and so on. Whichever one I choose, I find it makes no difference to the properties that I measure.
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Funding, Ethics, and Conflict of Interest Statement
The ideas on which this chapter is based were developed over many years of practicing psychology research. No specific funding was provided for them or the writing of the chapter. The work involved no experiments, and so raised no ethical issues. I have no conflict of interest to declare.
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Allen, R. (2021). Unlaws: The Missing “Dark Matter” in the Philosophy of Science?. In: Rezaei, N. (eds) Integrated Science. Integrated Science, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65273-9_9
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