Tractability and laws.

According to the Best System Account (BSA) of lawhood, laws of nature are theorems of the deductive systems that best balance simplicity and strength. In this paper, I advocate a different account of lawhood which is related, in spirit, to the BSA: according to my account, laws are theorems of deduc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Synthese Vol. 200; no. 4; pp. 1 - 30
Main Author: Wilhelm, Isaac
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Aug2022
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:According to the Best System Account (BSA) of lawhood, laws of nature are theorems of the deductive systems that best balance simplicity and strength. In this paper, I advocate a different account of lawhood which is related, in spirit, to the BSA: according to my account, laws are theorems of deductive systems that best balance simplicity, strength, and also calculational tractability. I discuss two problems that the BSA faces, and I show that my account solves them. I also use my account to illuminate the nomological character of special science laws.