How to Be Humean about Idealization Laws

Friend, Toby

doi:10.1017/psa.2022.12

Philos. sci.

2022

DOI: 10.1017/psa.2022.12

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How to Be Humean about Idealization Laws

Toby Friend¹

Abstract: If one has Humean inclinations, what account should one provide for idealisation laws? I introduce the most currently popular Humean approach to laws of nature: the Best Systems Account, along with some basic requirements for how to be the Humean. I then show why idealisation laws are unlikely to be accommodated within this account of laws. Finally, I offer an alternative approach, which takes idealisation laws to be meta-laws, placing requirements on the theorems of the best system.

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2023

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Cited by 2 publications

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Dispositions and Powers

Friend

Kimpton‐Nye

2023

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As we understand them, dispositions are relatively uncontroversial 'predicatory' properties had by objects disposed in certain ways. By contrast, powers are hypothetical 'ontic' properties posited in order to explain dispositional behaviour. Chapter 1 outlines this distinction in more detail. Chapter 2 offers a summary of the issues surrounding analysis of dispositions and various strategies in contemporary literature to address them, including one of our own. Chapter 3 describes some of the important questions facing the metaphysics of powers including why they're worth positing, and how they might metaphysically explain laws of nature and modality.

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Dispositions and Powers

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Kimpton‐Nye

2023

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Chemistry's Metaphysics

Seifert

2023

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The place of chemistry in the metaphysics of science may be viewed as peripheral compared to physics and biology. However, a metaphysics of science that disregards chemistry would be incomplete and ill-informed. This Element establishes this claim by showing how key metaphysical issues are informed by drawing on chemistry. Five metaphysical topics are investigated: natural kinds, scientific realism, reduction, laws and causation. These topics are spelled out from the perspective of ten chemical case studies, each of which illuminates the novel ways that metaphysics of science can be informed by chemistry. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

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How to Be Humean about Idealization Laws

Cited by 2 publications

References 39 publications

Dispositions and Powers

Dispositions and Powers

Chemistry's Metaphysics

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