Article (Scientific journals)
Making best systems best for us
Loew, Christian; Jaag, Siegfried
2018In Synthese
Peer reviewed
 

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Keywords :
Laws of nature Best systems account Humeanism Modality
Abstract :
[en] 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.
Disciplines :
Philosophy & ethics
Author, co-author :
Loew, Christian  ;  University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Identités, Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces (IPSE)
Jaag, Siegfried  ;  University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Identités, Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces (IPSE)
 These authors have contributed equally to this work.
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Making best systems best for us
Publication date :
02 June 2018
Journal title :
Synthese
ISSN :
0039-7857
Publisher :
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands
Peer reviewed :
Peer reviewed
Available on ORBilu :
since 03 June 2018

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