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Laws of Nature as Relations Between Quantities?

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Causation and Laws of Nature

Part of the book series: Australasian Studies in History and Philosophy of Science ((AUST,volume 14))

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Abstract

I will assume here that there are such things as laws of nature and quantities in the world. Some of the former certainly seem to be relations between the latter. The gas laws, some of the other laws of thermodynamics, Ohms law, perhaps some dynamical and electrodynamic principles, all appear to state relations between quantities.1 For example, pressure, volume and temperature are quantities, and the gas laws describe relations between values assigned as measures of these.

I am grateful to audiences in Melbourne and Pittsburgh for their comments on versions of this paper. Brian Ellis was kind enough to read a draft and, as always, his remarks were perceptive, to the point and most helpful.

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References

  • Armstrong, D.M. (1983), What is a Law of Nature?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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  • Forge, J.C. (1995), ‘Bigelow and Pargetter on Quantities’, Australasian Journal ofPhilosophy 73, 594–605

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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Forge, J. (1999). Laws of Nature as Relations Between Quantities?. In: Sankey, H. (eds) Causation and Laws of Nature. Australasian Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9229-1_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9229-1_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5303-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9229-1

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