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An Armstrongian Defense of Dispositional Monist Accounts of Laws of Nature

Mohammadian, Mousa (2022) An Armstrongian Defense of Dispositional Monist Accounts of Laws of Nature. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Bird reveals an important problem at the heart of Armstrong’s theory of laws of nature: to explain how a law necessitates its corresponding regularity, Armstrong is committed to a vicious regress. In his very brief response, Armstrong gestures towards an argument that, as he admits, is more of a “speculation.” Later, Barker and Smart argue that a very similar problem threatens Bird’s dispositional monist theory of laws of nature and he is committed to a similar vicious regress. In this paper, first, I construct Armstrong’s would-be argument in response to Bird. Second, I argue that his response makes his account of laws and natural properties incompatible with science. Finally, I argue that Armstrong’s strategy to address Bird’s criticism can be used, quite ironically, to defuse Barker and Smart’s argument against Bird.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Mohammadian, Mousamousa.mohammadian@ahduni.edu.in0000-0002-2422-4979
Keywords: laws of nature, categorical properties, dispositional properties, instantiation of properties, D. M. Armstrong, Alexander Bird
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
General Issues > Laws of Nature
Depositing User: Mousa Mohammadian
Date Deposited: 15 Jul 2022 13:13
Last Modified: 15 Jul 2022 13:13
Item ID: 20896
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
General Issues > Laws of Nature
Date: 2022
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20896

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