Fundamental laws and the completeness of physics
International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 13 (3):261 – 274 (1999)
| Abstract | The status of fundamental laws is an important issue when deciding between the three broad ontological options of fundamentalism (of which the thesis that physics is complete is typically a sub-type), emergentism, and disorder or promiscuous realism. Cartwrights assault on fundamental laws which argues that such laws do not, and cannot, typically state the facts, and hence cannot be used to support belief in a fundamental ontological order, is discussed in this context. A case is made in defence of a moderate form of fundamentalism, which leaves open the possibility of emergentism, but sets itself against the view that our best ontology is disordered. The argument, taking its cue from Bhaskar, relies on a consideration of the epistemic status of experiments, and the question of the possible generality of knowledge gained in unusual or controlled environments. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,679 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesMarkus Schrenk (2009). Can Physics Ever Be Complete If There is No Fundamental Level in Nature? Dialectica 63 (2):205-208.
David Spurrett (2001). Cartwright on Laws and Composition. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 15 (3):253 – 268.
Douglas Kutach (forthcoming). Causation and Its Basis in Fundamental Physics. Oxford University Press.
Nancy Cartwright (1983). How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford University Press.
Mehmet Elgin & Elliott Sober (2002). Cartwright on Explanation and Idealization. Erkenntnis 57 (3):441 - 450.
Dan Mcarthur (2006). Contra Cartwright: Structural Realism, Ontological Pluralism and Fundamentalism About Laws. Synthese 151 (2):233 - 255.
Renat Nugayev (1991). The Fundamental Laws of Physics Can Tell the Truth. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 5 (1):79 – 87.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads25 ( #49,599 of 549,087 )Recent downloads (6 months)3 ( #25,722 of 549,087 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
