Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T01:51:17.299Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Universality of Laws

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

John Earman
John Earman*
Affiliation:
Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Various senses in which laws of nature are supposed to be “universal” are distinguished. Conditions designed to capture the content of the more important of these senses are proposed and the relations among these conditions are examined. The status of universality requirements is briefly discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , June 1978 , pp. 173 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

∗

I am grateful to Professor Peter Achinstein for a number of helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

References

[1] Achinstein, P.: Law and Explanation (Oxford University Press, 1971).Google Scholar
[2] Braithwaite, R. B.: Scientific Explanation (Cambridge University Press, 1953).Google Scholar
[3] Earman, J.: “Determinism and Time Symmetries,” unpublished manuscript, 1976.Google Scholar
[4] Goodman, N.: Fact, Fiction, and Forecast (Bobbs Merrill, 1965).Google Scholar
[5] Hempel, C. G.: Aspects of Scientific Explanation (Free Press, 1965).Google Scholar
[6] Hempel, C. G., and Oppenheim, P.: “Studies in the Logic of Explanation,” reprinted in [5].Google Scholar
[7] Jobe, E. K.: “Some Recent Work on the Problem of Law,” Philosophy of Science, 34 (1967), 363–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8] Lauter, H. A.: “An Examination of Reichenbach on Laws,” Philosophy of Science, 37 (1970), 131–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9] Lewis, D. K.: Counterfactuals (Harvard University Press, 1973).Google Scholar
[10] Maxwell, J. C.: Matter and Motion (Dover Publications, 1952).Google Scholar
[11] Nagel, E.: The Structure of Science (Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1961).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[12] Pap, A.: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Free Press, 1962).Google Scholar
[13] Ramsey, F. P.: The Foundations of Mathematics (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1954).Google Scholar
[14] Reichenbach, H.: Nomological Statements and Admissible Operations (North Holland, 1954).Google Scholar
[15] Schlick, M.: “Causality in Everyday Life and Recent Science,” reprinted in H. Feigl and W. Sellars, (eds.), Readings in Philosophical Analysis (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1949).Google Scholar