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Single Idea 19958
[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / c. Essence and laws
]
Full Idea
Laws, in the broadest meaning of the term, are the necessary relations that derive from the nature of things.
Gist of Idea
Laws are the necessary relations that derive from the nature of things
Source
Baron de Montesquieu (The Spirit of the Laws (rev. 1757) [1748], 01.01)
Book Ref
Montesquieu,Baron de: 'Selected Political Writings', ed/tr. Richter,Melvin [Hackett 1990], p.109
A Reaction
Montesquieu is about to discuss social laws, but this is the clearest statement I have ever met of the essentialist view of the laws of nature.
The
22 ideas
with the same theme
[relationship between essences and laws of nature]:
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17005
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Natural things observe certain laws, and things cannot do otherwise if they retain their forms
[Hooker,R]
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17023
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I am not saying gravity is essential to bodies
[Newton]
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17009
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I won't object if someone shows that gravity consistently arises from the action of matter
[Newton]
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19403
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Each of the infinite possible worlds has its own laws, and the individuals contain those laws
[Leibniz]
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13198
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Gravity is within matter because of its structure, and it can be explained.
[Leibniz]
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13093
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The only permanence in things, constituting their substance, is a law of continuity
[Leibniz]
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11945
|
In addition to laws, God must also create appropriate natures for things
[Leibniz]
|
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12725
|
Leibniz wanted to explain motion and its laws by the nature of body
[Leibniz, by Garber]
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16507
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The law within something fixes its persistence, and accords with general laws of nature
[Leibniz]
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19958
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Laws are the necessary relations that derive from the nature of things
[Montesquieu]
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7206
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Things are strong or weak, and do not behave regularly or according to rules or compulsions
[Nietzsche]
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7140
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Chemical 'laws' are merely the establishment of power relations between weaker and stronger
[Nietzsche]
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7142
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All motions and 'laws' are symptoms of inner events, traceable to the will to power
[Nietzsche]
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15470
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Causal laws are summaries of powers
[Martin,CB]
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6614
|
A hierarchy of natural kinds is elaborate ontology, but needed to explain natural laws
[Ellis]
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18089
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Dispositions are not general laws, but laws of the natures of individual entities
[Place]
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15892
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Laws of nature state necessary connections of things, events and properties, based on models of mechanisms
[Harré]
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15240
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In lawful universal statements (unlike accidental ones) we see why the regularity holds
[Harré/Madden]
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9434
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Laws of nature are just the possession of essential properties by natural kinds
[Mumford]
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23713
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Most laws supervene on fundamental laws, which are explained by basic powers
[Bird, by Friend/Kimpton-Nye]
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23778
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Powers contain lawlike features, pointing to possible future states
[Williams,NE]
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17993
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Laws are relations of kinds, quantities and qualities, supervening on the essences of a domain
[Vetter]
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