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Laws of Nature and their Supporting Casts

McKenna, Travis (2024) Laws of Nature and their Supporting Casts. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

What role do laws of nature play in the process of scientific inquiry? In answering this question, philosophers have tended to focus on a handful of predictive and explanatory roles with which laws have been traditionally associated. I argue that this traditional focus overlooks an important fact about scientific practice: before they can be of any predictive or explanatory use, laws must often be supplemented by a wide variety of modelling ingredients, such as material parameters, boundary conditions, auxiliary models, and so on – what I call their supporting casts. As a result, many accounts of laws have trouble conferring lawhood on the kinds of generalisations and principles worth calling laws without also conferring it on those features that play a merely supporting role. I argue that the key to avoiding this problem lies in recognising the important role that laws play in helping us to coordinate the various different kinds of information we must make use of in our attempts to model some system and thus explain or predict its behaviour. In addition to contributing to a more complete philosophical picture of scientific methodology surrounding laws, my account of this coordinating role also helps us to identify several distinct explanatory and predictive roles that laws play in scientific practice.


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Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
McKenna, Travistravis.mckenna@pitt.edutrm75
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Committee CoChairBatterman, Robertrbatterm@pitt.edu
Committee CoChairWilson, Markmawilson@pitt.edu
Committee MemberWallace, Daviddavid.wallace@pitt.edu
Committee MemberBelot, Gordonbelot@umich.edu
Committee MemberShumener, Ericaeshumene@syr.edu
Date: 27 August 2024
Date Type: Publication
Defense Date: 17 May 2024
Approval Date: 27 August 2024
Submission Date: 8 August 2024
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Number of Pages: 99
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Philosophy
Degree: PhD - Doctor of Philosophy
Thesis Type: Doctoral Dissertation
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: laws of nature, explanation, scientific modelling
Date Deposited: 27 Aug 2024 13:08
Last Modified: 27 Aug 2024 13:08
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/46880

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