RE: What are Laws of Nature?
March 21, 2022 at 6:14 am
(This post was last modified: March 21, 2022 at 6:16 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(March 20, 2022 at 6:48 pm)Istvan Wrote:(March 20, 2022 at 5:48 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: It is this aspect of the laws of nature that I'd like to discuss here. Even if you want to press the point that laws of nature have an undeniably human element, one must also concede that they say something accurate about the universe, whether humans exist or not. But what do they actually say about the universe? That's my question.They certainly suggest that we can have stable knowledge of phenomena. But calling them laws demonstrates that this isn't about epistemic prudence, it's about imposing order on reality. Metaphors relating to domination and authority are what make scientific inquiry seem important to cultures obsessed with control and power.
Sure, the people who decided to call them "laws of nature" didn't make the normative/descriptive distinction we do now. They thought they were normative, imposed by a god, for order. Still get plenty of those people here, on the boards, today.
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