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Metaphysicians speak of laws of nature in terms of necessity and universality; scientists, in terms of symmetry and invariance. In this book van Fraassen argues that no metaphysical account of laws can succeed. He analyzes and rejects the arguments that there are laws of nature, or that we must believe there are, and argues that we should disregard the idea of law as an inadequate clue to science. After exploring what this means for general epistemology, the author develops the empiricist view of science as a construction of models to represent the phenomena.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction
• Part 1 Are there laws of nature?
• What are the laws of nature?
• Ideal science: David Lewis's account of laws
• Necessity, worlds, and chance
• Universals: Laws grounded in nature
• Part 2 Belief as rational but lawless: Inference to the best explanation: Salvation by Laws?
• Towards a new epistemology
• What if there are no laws? A manifesto
• Part 3 Symmetry as guide to theory: Introduction to the Semantic approach
• Symmetry arguments in science and metaphysics
• Symmetries guiding modern science
• Part 4 Symmetry and the illusion of logical probability: Indifference: The symmetries of probability
• Symmetries of probability kinematics
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

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CHOICE Review

Van Fraassen is perhaps the foremost advocate of an agenda known as "the semantic method," here described as a constructive interrogation of analytic models of theories. Made prominent by the author's recent The Scientific Image (CH, Jun'81), the antirealistic argument (contested in F. Suppe's Semantic Conception of Theories and Scientific Realism, CH, May'90) emerges in a "manifesto" (destined for excerpt collections), aptly titled "What If There Are No Laws?" that follows extensive rejection of "laws-of-nature." Van Fraassen's milieu is pragmatism (here called "constructive empiricism"), and this is best illustrated by his description of (Noether's notion of) scientific theories as symmetry principles. He concludes with another "model," the "probability kinematics" of formally establishing degrees of confidence in empirical generalizations. Here he espouses a "natural language" (modeled by Lebesque measure theory) for representation of theory as candidate for semantic interrogation. The most readable of the recent literature in the emerging field, and generous with praise of a galaxy of competition, this book might be the exemplar chosen by faculty of introductory philosophy of science programs. Highly recommended for all library collections in the philosophy of science. P. D. Skiff Bard College