What counts as a law of nature? To what extent are they something discovered rather than invented? How do they differ from accidental generalizations? Do laws of nature merely describe regularities in the world or do they involve necessities that lie behind our empirical observations of regularities, in some sense "governing" events in the universe and thus explaining such regularities? These are just some of the kinds of philosophical questions that arise regarding laws of nature. Both the regularity theory and necessitarian theory are discussed and contrasted here. This wonderful speaker is Professor Jeffrey Kasser and comes from a course given on the philosophy of science quite a few years back.

For a good supplementary reading of these philosophical issues about laws of nature and the two main approaches, as well as some of the philosophical implications for other issues, check out the following article from The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Norman Swartz: [ Ссылка ]

00:00 Introduction
06:18 Regularity Theory
29:39 Necessitarian Theory

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