Laws and Symmetry

Name: Laws and Symmetry
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9780198248118

ISBN-10: 0198248113

ISBN-13: 9780198248118

Edition: 1989

Authors: Bas C. van Fraassen

List price: $65.00

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Metaphysicians speak of laws of nature in terms of necessity and universality; scientists, in terms of symmetry and invariance. In this book van Fraassen argues that no metaphysical account of laws can succeed. He analyzes and rejects the arguments that there are laws of nature, or that we must believe there are, and argues that we should disregard the idea of law as an adequate clue to science. After exploring what this means for general epistemology, the author develops the empiricist view of science as a construction of models to represent the phenomena.

Book details

List price: $65.00
Copyright year: 1989
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 1/4/1990
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 416
Size: 5.75" wide x 8.81" long x 1.13" tall
Weight: 1.540
Language: English

Introduction
Are there laws of nature?
What are the laws of nature?
Ideal science: David Lewis's account of laws
Necessity, worlds, and chance
Universals: Laws grounded in nature
Belief as rational but lawless: Inference to the best explanation: Salvation by Laws?
Towards a new epistemology
What if there are no laws? A manifesto
Symmetry as guide to theory: Introduction to the Semantic approach
Symmetry arguments in science and metaphysics
Symmetries guiding modern science
Symmetry and the illusion of logical probability: Indifference: The symmetries of probability
Symmetries of probability kinematics
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.