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Laws and Possibilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Arnold Koslow
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Abstract

The initial part of this paper explores and rejects three standard views of how scientific laws might be systematically connected with physical necessity or possibility. The first concerns laws and their consequences, the second concerns the so-called counterfactual connection, and the third concerns a possible worlds construction of physical necessity. The remaining part introduces a neglected notion of possibility, and, with the aid of some examples, illustrates the special way in which laws reduce or narrow down possibilities.

Type
Laws, Possibility, and the New Instrumentalism
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers , December 2004 , pp. 719 - 729
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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References

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Koslow, Arnold (2003), “Laws, Explanations and the Reduction of Possibilities”, in Lillehammer, Hallvard and Rodriguez-Pereyra, Gonzalo (eds.), Real Metaphysics: Essays in Honour of D. H. Mellor. London: Routledge, 169–183.Google Scholar