Interpreting Nature's Laws: Recipe or News Report?
Originally Published 1 year ago — by Aeon
The essay explores different philosophical models explaining the laws of nature, focusing on the 'layer-cake' model, which views laws as deterministic and producing future states from present ones, and the 'newspaper' model, which sees laws as descriptive rather than prescriptive. It also introduces the 'straitjacket' model, which suggests laws constrain possibilities without a flow of time. The discussion highlights the metaphysical challenges each model faces in explaining stable regularities in the universe, such as the consistent rising of the Sun or the boiling point of water.