Laws and Symmetry法律与对称性.doc

Laws and Symmetry Bas C. van Fraassen, Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University Abstract: Metaphysicians speak of laws of nature in terms of necessity and universality, and that conception played a role in the birth of modern physics some centuries ago, but today physicists speak in terms of symmetry, transformations, and invariance. Laws and Symmetrys three main objectives are: first, to show the failure of current philosophical accounts of laws of nature; second, to refute arguments for the reality of laws of nature; third, to contrib ute to an epistemology and a philosophy of science antithetical to such metaphysical notions. The latter involves an inquiry into the character and role of symmetry and of symmetry arguments in the physical sciences. Content 1 Introduction 1 Part I Are There Laws of Nature? 1 Introduction 16 2 What Are Laws of Nature? 17 3 Ideal Science: David Lewiss Account of Laws 40 4 Necessity, Worlds, and Chance 65 5 Universals: Laws Grounded in Nature 94 Part II Belief as Rational But Lawless 129 Introduction 130 6 Inference to the Best Explanation: Salvation by Laws? 131 7 Towards a New Epistemology 150 8 What if There Are No Laws? a Manifesto 183 Part III Symmetry as Guide to Theory 215 Introduction 216 9 Introduction to the Semantic Approach 217 10 Symmetry Arguments in Science and Metaphysics 233 11 Symmetries Guiding Modern Science 262 Part IV Symmetry and the Illusion of Logical Probability 291 Introduction 292 12 Indifference: The Symmetries of Probability 293 13 Symmetries of Probability Kinematics 318 Preface The idea that there are laws of nature is by no means the sole property of philosophers. That this idea is the key to what science is, often appears as self-evident in popular thought: in The History of Landscape Painting, John Constable writes ‘Painting is a science’ and he adds, unconscious of any leap in thought, ‘and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature.’ That these laws constitute also walls of