Quentin Smith - The Metaphysical Necessity of Natural Laws

A propos my mention of that fellow  in my recent post a quick Google search turns this interesting essay on the metaphysical necessity of the laws of nature contra Humean Regularity aka Cosmic Coincidence theories and  Armstrong and Tooley’s ‘Nomic Necessity’ accounts. The information in the early section on the difference between the A Priori and Necessity should be old news now but if one isn’t familiar with that issue then it’s well worth a look.
 
Interestingly despite arguing cogently for the necessity thesis he does not give a very clear account of what said ‘Laws of Nature’ actually are. One gets the impression – at this point note I’ve only just skim-read – that he is sympathetic to the Platonic universals account but just doesn’t agree with Tooley’s cavils about necessity.

EDIT: Hmm did not he spend most of his first debate with WLC complaining that 'only a handful of theists believe causation and the laws of nature to be necessary'? It would fit very badly with the tone he took for the second debate, the famous one, and the metaphysics in Ethical and Religious Thought in Analytical Philosophy of Language.

Last edited by DanielCC (10/17/2015 6:16 am)