Jaag, Siegfried and Loew, Christian (2018) Making best systems best for us. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Humean reductionism about laws of nature appears to leave a central aspect of scientific practice unmotivated: If the world’s fundamental structure is exhausted by the actual distribution of non-modal properties and the laws of nature are merely efficient summaries of this distribution, then why does science posit laws that cover a wide range of non-actual circumstances? In this paper, we develop a new version of the Humean best systems account of laws based on the idea that laws need to organize information in a way that maximizes their cognitive usefulness for creature like us. We argue that this account motivates scientific practice because the laws’ applicability to non-actual circumstances falls right out of their cognitive usefulness.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
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| Keywords: | Laws of nature Best systems account Humeanism Modality | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Laws of Nature General Issues > Philosophers of Science |
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| Depositing User: | Christian Loew | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 01 Jun 2018 14:02 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 01 Jun 2018 14:02 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 14730 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Laws of Nature General Issues > Philosophers of Science |
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| Date: | 2018 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/14730 |
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