law of nature. what are the laws of nature

1 ANSWERS

1. salim
   

   Laws of Nature
   
   1. are factual truths, not logical ones; "The boiling point of sulfur is 444.6° Celsius" expresses a factual truth. "Every number has a double" expresses a logical truth.
   2. are true for every time and every place in the universe; There are no laws of nature that hold just for the planet earth (or the Andromeda Galaxy, for that matter), nor are there any that hold just for the Eighteenth Century or just for the Mesozoic Era.
   3. contain no proper names; Laws of nature may contain general concepts, such as "mass", "color", "aptitude", "capital", "diabetes", "return on investments", etc.; but may not contain such terms as "the Fraser River", "the planet Earth".
   
   4. are universal or statistical claims; and "(All pure) copper conducts electricity" expresses a law of nature. But "Stars exist" (although true) does not express a law of nature: it is neither a universal nor a statistical claim.
   
   5. are conditional claims, not categorical ones. Categorical claims which are equivalent to conditional claims (e.g. "There are no perpetual motion machines of the first kind" which is equivalent to "If anything is a perpetual motion machine then it is not of the first kind") are candidates for lawfulness.
   
   Categorical claims (e.g., again, "There are stars") which are not equivalent to conditionals are not candidates for lawfulness.
   
   Note: Laws of physics which are expressed mathematically are taken to be elliptical for conditional truths. For example, the law "mv = mo/(1 - v2/c2)½ " is to be read as equivalent to "for any massy object, if its velocity is v, then its mass [mv] is equal to its rest mass [mo] divided by ..."

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