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Full Idea
It can be objected that laws cannot do the job of explaining their instances if they are merely regularities, ...because something cannot explain itself.
Gist of Idea
Laws cannot explain instances if they are regularities, as something can't explain itself
Source
Alexander Bird (Philosophy of Science [1998], Ch.1)
Book Ref
Bird,Alexander: 'Philosophy of Science' [UCL Press 2000], p.44
A Reaction
A nice point. The objection assumes that a law should explain things, rather than just describing them. I take the model to be smoking-and-cancer; the statistics describe what is happening, but only lung biochemistry will explain it.