ENGLISH

Laws and Symmetry (Clarendon Paperbacks)

By Bas C. van Fraassen

Book information

Publisher
Oxford University Press, USA
Year
1990
ISBN
0198248601, 9780198248606
LCC
BD581 .V27 1989
Open Library ID
OL2208096M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
4 MB (3955527 bytes)
Pages
412\412
Scanned
yes
Time added
2012-02-04 16:00:00

Description

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.

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