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Item Details
| Title:
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LAWS AND SYMMETRY
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| By: |
Bas C. van Fraassen |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| List price:
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£45.99 |
| Our price: |
£40.24 |
| Discount: |
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| You save:
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£5.75 |
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| ISBN 10: |
0198248601 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780198248606 |
| Availability: |
Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.
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| Stock: |
Currently 0 available |
| Publisher: |
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS |
| Pub. date: |
2 November, 1989 |
| Series: |
Clarendon Paperbacks |
| Pages: |
410 |
| Description: |
This is a book in the philosophy of science, which examines the concept of laws of nature. The author analyses and rejects arguments for the existence of such laws, and argues that there is no point in us believing that they exist. This has important implications for scientists, since he rejects the idea of law as an inadequate clue to science. In the second part of the book he develops a philosophical approach to science which takes account of theseobjections. |
| Synopsis: |
Metaphysicians speak of laws of nature in terms of necessity and universality; scientists do so in terms of symmetry and invariance. This book argues that no metaphysical account of laws can succeed. The author analyses and rejects the arguments that there are laws of nature, or that we must believe that there are. He argues that we should discard the idea of law as an inadequate clue to science. After exploring what this means for general epistemology, the book develops the empiricist view of science as a construction of models to represent the phenomena. Concepts of symmetry, transformation, and invariance illuminate the structure of such models. A central role is played in science by symmetry arguments, and it is shown how these function also in the philosophical analysis of probability. The advocated approach presupposes no realism about laws or necessities in nature. |
| Illustrations: |
figures, tables |
| Publication: |
UK |
| Imprint: |
Clarendon Press |
| Returns: |
Returnable |
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