Bielińska, Marta (2026) Is the Best System Account of laws of nature really compatible with scientific practice? [Preprint]

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Abstract

Do laws of nature govern physical reality? Proponents of the so-called Best
System approach give a negative answer to this question. At the same time, they do not reject the existence of laws of nature altogether. Instead, on this view, laws are axioms of a deductive system whose true theorems describe the physical world with the best balance between simplicity and strength—hence the name ‘the Best System.’ How does the Best System relate to scientific practice? Many philosophers have argued that, in comparison with rival accounts of the laws of nature, it reflects scientific practice particularly well. Not only does it capture the fact that science aims to develop theories that are simple yet strong (for instance, in terms of explanatory power), but it also refrains from invoking metaphysical categories such as powers or dispositions, which are not recalled in contemporary scientific discourse. However, what is missing from the literature on the Best System approach and scientific practice is the observation that scientific laws—at least in physics since the modern era—are largely formulated in the language of equations, such as Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism or Einstein’s
field equations. In this paper, I argue that the Best System approach runs into a number of novel problems when applied to laws of physics expressed in the form of equations, including problems concerning approximations and idealisations, the role of units, and the lack of perfectly isolated systems. I further argue that, once such laws are taken into account, traditional objections to the Best System—such as the problem of immanent inter-system comparisons—take on a new form. I conclude with some brief considerations as to whether, in light of these arguments, the Best System should be rejected entirely, or whether some of its core postulates could be preserved.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Bielińska, Marta marta.bielinska@oriel.ox.ac.uk 0000-0002-8156-7919
Keywords:	Laws of nature, the Best System Account, Humean mosaic, scientific practice, equations, philosophy of physics.
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Laws of Nature
Depositing User:	Dr Marta Bielińska
Date Deposited:	18 May 2026 11:09
Last Modified:	18 May 2026 11:09
Item ID:	29685
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Laws of Nature
Date:	17 May 2026
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29685

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