Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In recent work, Adlam (2022b), Chen and Goldstein (2022), and Meacham (2023) have defended accounts of laws that take laws to be primitive global constraints. A major advantage of these accounts is that they're able to accommodate the many different kinds of laws that appear in physical theories. In this paper I'll present these three accounts, highlight their distinguishing features, and note some key differences that might lead one to favor one of these accounts over the others. I'll conclude by briefly discussing a version of a “constraint” account that I think is especially attractive.
DOI: 10.3998/ergo.7427
Author: Christopher J. G. Meacham
Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409216644