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Bastiaan C. Van Fraassen
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Laws and Symmetry Hardcover – Import, November 1, 1989

by Bas C. Van Fraassen (Author)
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Metaphysicians speak of laws of nature in terms of necessity and universality; scientists, in terms of symmetry and invariance. In this book van Fraassen argues that no metaphysical account of laws can succeed. He analyzes and rejects the arguments that there are laws of nature, or that wemust believe there are, and argues that we should disregard the idea of law as an inadequate clue to science. After exploring what this means for general epistemology, the author develops the empiricist view of science as a construction of models to represent the phenomena.
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  1. Print length
    410 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Clarendon Press
  4. Publication date
    November 1, 1989
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1.13 x 8.81 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0198248113
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0198248118
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clarendon Press; First Edition (November 1, 1989)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 410 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0198248113
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0198248118
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.18 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.13 x 8.81 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

About the author

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Bastiaan C. Van Fraassen

Bastiaan C. Van Fraassen

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I am a philosopher, and in recent years I have been preoccupied with two philosophical questions, one about philosophy itself, and one about science,

"What Is Empiricism, and What Could It Be?" and "What is Scientific Representation?" I've offered an answer to the first in my book The Empirical Stance, and tackled the second in a book I finished anno 2008, Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective.

Most of my work as a philosopher has been in philosophy of science and in philosophical logic, but with occasional forays into philosophy of literature and the connections between art, literature, and science. Like most philosophers (I think) I began with the ambition to arrive at a coherent view of everything -- some day, within my lifetime -- and I am still cherishing that idea ...

Is there a general basic empiricist position within which I address philosophical questions? I have tried to address this (admittedly many-sided) question in various places, but if I am to indicate just one, it should be "Literate Experience: The [De-, Re-] Construction of Nature" (2000), which is available on the abstracts & manuscripts page on my website http://www.princeton.edu/~fraassen/

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