How to be a powers theorist about functional laws, conservation laws and symmetries

Samuel Kimpton-Nye

doi:10.1007/s11098-022-01903-5

How to be a powers theorist about functional laws, conservation laws and symmetries

Samuel Kimpton-Nye^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Philosophy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

56 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper defends an account of the laws of nature in terms of irreducibly modal properties (aka powers) from the threat posed by functional laws, conservation laws and symmetries. It thus shows how powers theorists can avoid ad hoc explanations and resist an inflated ontology of powers and governing laws. The key is to understand laws not as flowing from the essences of powers, as per Bird (2007), but as features of a description of how powers are possibly distributed, as per Demarest (2017), Kimpton-Nye (2017, 2021) and Williams (2019); call this the Powers-BSA. This underappreciated powers-based account of laws is continuous with actual scientific practice and thereby quite naturally accommodates functional laws, conservation laws and symmetries. This paper thus positions the Powers-BSA as the leading anti-Humean account of the relationship between laws and properties.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	317-332
Number of pages	16
Journal	Philosophical Studies
Volume	180
Issue number	1
Early online date	30 Nov 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-022-01903-5
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
For discussion of these ideas and feedback on earlier drafts, I am very grateful to: Francesca Bellazzi, Toby Friend, Stavros Ioannidis, Vassilis Livanios, Stathis Psillos, Vanessa Seifert, Tuomas Tahko, Matthew Tugby, Barbara Vetter, an audience at the 2021 annual conference of the Society for the Metaphysics of Science and reviewers here and elsewhere.

Funding Information:
The research for this paper received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's (EU) Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No 771509 (‘MetaScience’).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

Keywords

Conservation laws
Functional laws
Powers
Symmetries
Explanation

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MetaScience: The Metaphysical Unity of Science
Tahko, T. (Principal Investigator), Seifert, V. A. (Researcher), Friend, T. T. (Researcher), Kimpton-Nye, S. (Researcher), Bellazzi, F. (Student), Franklin, A. (Other ) & Morgan, W. H. (Researcher)
1/09/18 → 31/08/23
Project: Research

Cite this

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abstract = "This paper defends an account of the laws of nature in terms of irreducibly modal properties (aka powers) from the threat posed by functional laws, conservation laws and symmetries. It thus shows how powers theorists can avoid ad hoc explanations and resist an inflated ontology of powers and governing laws. The key is to understand laws not as flowing from the essences of powers, as per Bird (2007), but as features of a description of how powers are possibly distributed, as per Demarest (2017), Kimpton-Nye (2017, 2021) and Williams (2019); call this the Powers-BSA. This underappreciated powers-based account of laws is continuous with actual scientific practice and thereby quite naturally accommodates functional laws, conservation laws and symmetries. This paper thus positions the Powers-BSA as the leading anti-Humean account of the relationship between laws and properties.",

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AB - This paper defends an account of the laws of nature in terms of irreducibly modal properties (aka powers) from the threat posed by functional laws, conservation laws and symmetries. It thus shows how powers theorists can avoid ad hoc explanations and resist an inflated ontology of powers and governing laws. The key is to understand laws not as flowing from the essences of powers, as per Bird (2007), but as features of a description of how powers are possibly distributed, as per Demarest (2017), Kimpton-Nye (2017, 2021) and Williams (2019); call this the Powers-BSA. This underappreciated powers-based account of laws is continuous with actual scientific practice and thereby quite naturally accommodates functional laws, conservation laws and symmetries. This paper thus positions the Powers-BSA as the leading anti-Humean account of the relationship between laws and properties.

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How to be a powers theorist about functional laws, conservation laws and symmetries

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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MetaScience: The Metaphysical Unity of Science

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