Governing Without A Fundamental Direction of Time: Minimal Primitivism about Laws of Nature

Chen, Eddy Keming and Goldstein, Sheldon (2021) Governing Without A Fundamental Direction of Time: Minimal Primitivism about Laws of Nature. [Preprint]

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Abstract

The Great Divide in metaphysical debates about laws of nature is between Humeans, who think that laws merely describe the distribution of matter, and non-Humeans, who think that laws govern it. The metaphysics can place demands on the proper formulations of physical theories. It is sometimes assumed that the governing view requires a fundamental / intrinsic direction of time: to govern, laws must be dynamical, producing later states of the world from earlier ones, in accord with the fundamental direction of time in the universe. In this paper, we propose a minimal primitivism about laws of nature (MinP) according to which there is no such requirement. On our view, laws govern by constraining the physical possibilities. Our view captures the essence of the governing view without taking on extraneous commitments about the direction of time or dynamic production. Moreover, as a version of primitivism, our view requires no reduction / analysis of laws in terms of universals, powers, or dispositions. Our view accommodates several potential candidates for fundamental laws, including the principle of least action, the Past Hypothesis, the Einstein equation of general relativity, and even controversial examples found in the Wheeler-Feynman theory of electrodynamics and retrocausal theories of quantum mechanics. By understanding governing as constraining, non-Humeans who accept MinP have the same freedom to contemplate a wide variety of candidate fundamental laws as Humeans do.

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Preprint

Creators:

Creators	Email	ORCID
Chen, Eddy Keming	eddykemingchen@ucsd.edu	0000-0001-5144-0952
Goldstein, Sheldon	oldstein@math.rutgers.edu

Additional Information:

Forthcoming in Yemima Ben-Menahem (ed.), Rethinking Laws of Nature. Springer. The main change from v1 is the addition of "A Sharper Contrast" on p.36.

Keywords:

laws of nature, explanation, non-Humeanism, Humeanism, direction of time, probability, typicality, fundamentality, constraint, production, causation, primitivism, simplicity, governing

Subjects:

Depositing User:

Dr. Eddy Keming Chen

Date Deposited:

19 Oct 2021 17:43

Last Modified:

19 Oct 2021 17:43

Item ID:

19707

Subjects:

Date:

17 October 2021

URI:

https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19707

Available Versions of this Item

Governing Without A Fundamental Direction of Time: Minimal Primitivism about Laws of Nature. (deposited 21 Sep 2021 03:01)
- Governing Without A Fundamental Direction of Time: Minimal Primitivism about Laws of Nature. (deposited 19 Oct 2021 17:43) [Currently Displayed]
  - Governing Without A Fundamental Direction of Time: Minimal Primitivism about Laws of Nature. (deposited 18 Jun 2022 14:48)

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Governing Without A Fundamental Direction of Time: Minimal Primitivism about Laws of Nature

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