Laws of Nature

Geronimo R. Rosario
 Laws of Nature
• Law of Nature is a stated regularity in the
relations or order of phenomena in the world that
holds, under a stipulated set of conditions, either
universally or in a stated proportion of instances.
Law of Nature is nothing
else than any one of the
regularities observed in
natural occurrences,
insofar as it is looked
upon as necessary
 Law of Scientific
Natural Law
Nature Law

• Law of Nature is based on physical laws (law of

gravity or the laws of thermodynamics).
• Both Natural Law and Scientific Law are based on
moral and legal theories.
 Two Principal Views
• Regularity- an event may be the cause of another
event without there being a necessary connection
between the two. In here, there is no physical
necessity.
• Necessitarianism – there is a physical necessity
which is a property of the Laws of Nature (along
with truth, universality, etc.); according to other
Necessitarians, physical necessity inheres in the
very woof and warp (the stuff and structure) of the
universe.
 Shared Elements

Regularity Factual truths, Necessitarian

Theory Theory
Not logical ones

"The boiling point of sulfur is 444.6° Celsius" expresses a

factual truth. "Every number has a double" expresses a
logical truth.
 Shared Elements

true for every

Regularity time and Necessitarian
Theory Theory
every place in
the universe

There are no laws of nature that hold just for the planet earth (or
the Andromeda Galaxy, for that matter), nor are there any that
hold just for the Eighteenth Century or just for the Mesozoic Era
 Shared Elements

Regularity contain no Necessitarian

Theory proper names Theory

Laws of nature may contain general concepts, such as "mass",

"color", "aptitude", "capital", "diabetes", "return on investments",
etc.; but may not contain such terms as "the Fraser River", "the
planet Earth", "$59.22", "June 18, 1935", "IBM", etc
 Shared Elements

Regularity universal or Necessitarian

Theory statistical Theory

claims

"(All pure) copper conducts electricity" expresses a law of

nature. But "Stars exist" (although true) does not express
a law of nature: it is neither a universal nor a statistical
claim
 Shared Elements

conditional
Regularity claims, not Necessitarian
Theory Theory
categorical
ones

Categorical claims which are equivalent to conditional claims (e.g. "There

are no perpetual motion machines of the first kind" which is equivalent to
"If anything is a perpetual motion machine then it is not of the first kind")
are candidates for lawfulness.
Categorical claims (e.g., again, "There are stars") which are not equivalent
to conditionals are not candidates for lawfulness
Ten Principles of the Laws of
Nature
Principle
1
The Laws of Nature are based on
Experience
• The laws of nature Example: Law of Conservation
are nothing more
than empirical
statements.
• They cannot be
proved, but they are
nevertheless valid.
Principle
2
The Laws of Nature are Universally
Valid
• The theorem of the unity
of nature is an important
scientific law.
• This means that the
validity of the laws of
nature is not restricted to a
certain limited space or
time
Principle
3
The Laws of Nature are equally
valid for living beings and for
inanimate matter
• The validity of the
law of nature does
not limit only on living
things but extended
to non-living things.
Principle
4
The Laws of Nature are not
restricted to any one field of study
• The Law of Nature
can be applicable to
any other fields of
interests.
• The validity of the
laws of nature are nor
restricted to the first
area of interest.
Principle
5
The laws of nature are immutable

• All known observations indicate

that the laws of nature have
never changed.
• It is generally assumed that the
known laws are constant over
time, but this is also merely an
observation that cannot be
proven
Principle
6
The laws of nature are simple

• The laws of nature

can mostly be
formulated in very
simple terms.
• Their effects are,
however, often
complex.
 Principle
7
The laws of nature are (in
principle) falsifiable
• The laws of nature are
subject for refute and
disprove.
• After a law has been
formulated, we discover that
it could in principle very
easily be negated if invalid
Principle
8
The laws of nature can be
expressed in various ways
• Different ways of expression can be employed for any given
natural law, depending on the mode of application.
• a) Energy cannot be created from nothing; neither can it be
destroyed.
• b) It is impossible to construct a machine which can work
perpetually once it has been set in motion, without a
continuous supply of energy (b follows directly from a).
• c) E = constant (The energy of a system is constant.)
• d) dE/dt = 0 (The balance of the total of all energies E of a
system does not change, meaning that the derivative of
energy versus time is zero.)
Principle
9
The laws of nature describe
reproducible results
• The validity of the law of
nature can be tested
time and time again.
• Reproducibility is an
essential characteristic
of the laws of nature
Principle
10
a
Natural events can be explained
without God
• Most effects of the laws of nature
can be explained and computed
without reference to God.
• This assumption can be used in
all cases where the laws of
nature are applied to existing or
planned systems.
Principle
10
The present
b laws of nature became
operational when creation was
completed
• All the laws of nature have
only been in operation since
the completion of creation.
• If God is the Creator of the
laws of nature, then He
himself is not subject to
them.
 Relevance of the
Laws of Nature
The laws of nature provide us
with a better understanding of
natural phenomena and events.

The laws of nature enable

us to make predictions.
 The laws of nature make
technological development
possible.

By means of the laws of nature, it is

possible to determine beforehand
whether an envisaged process
would be realizable or not.

The laws of nature are

applicable to cases formerly
unknown.
 Conservation theorems

Classification Equivalence theorems

of the
Laws of Nature Directional theorems

Impossibility theorems
 Laws which describe
processes

Classification Co-existence laws

of the
Laws of Nature Limit theorems

Information theorems
 Conservation theorems
• Conservation laws are the fundamental of the laws
of nature.
• Conservation law of energy states that the total
quantity of energy in an isolated system does not
change, though it may change form.
 Equivalence theorems
• Mass and energy can be seen to be equivalent in
terms of Einstein’s famous formula E = m x c2.
 Directional theorems
• Concerns with laws that are unidirectional and
irreversible
• law of entropy
• chemical principle of
Le Chatelier
• law of mass action
 Impossibility theorems
• Concerns with laws that are
deemed impossible.
• The impossibility theorems
are very useful because
they effectively distinguish
between possible and
impossible events.
 Laws which describe
processes
• If the future (prognosis) or the past (retrognosis)
states of a system can be described when the
values of the relevant variables are known for at
least one moment in time, such a formulation is
known as a process law.
A typical physical example
is the description of
radioactive decay.
 Co-existence Laws
• Describe the simultaneous existence of the
properties of a system
• The formula describing the state changes of an
ideal gas, p x v = R x T, is a typical physical co-
existence law.
The values of the three quantities,
pressure p, specific volume v, and
absolute temperature T, comprise a
complete description of the “state” of
an ideal gas.
 Limit theorems
• describe boundaries that cannot be overstepped
• Principle of Heisenberg states that it is impossible
to determine both the position and the velocity of a
particle exactly at a prescribed moment.
 Information theorems
• Concerns about theories resulted from other
theories that bring new or updated information.
• Since most theories start with impossibility, these
were tested if they are fundamentally impossible
or statistically impossible.
• Once proven to be possible, this yield an
information.
 Possible Impossible
VS
Events Events
Possible events occur under the “supervision” of
the laws of nature, but it is in general not possible
to describe all of them completely.
On the other hand, impossible events could be
identified by means of the so-called impossibility
theorems.
 Possible Impossible
VS
Events Events
 It should be clear that impossible events are
neither observable nor recognizable nor
measurable.
 Possible events have in general either been
observed, or they are observable.
 However, there are other possible events that
cannot be directly observed e.g. Interior of the sun
 Impossible Events
Fundamentally Statistically
Impossible VS
Impossible

• Events which • Radioactive decay is a

contradict, for
example, the energy
law are impossible in
principle because
this theorem even
holds for individual
atoms.
statistical law which is
subject to the
probability theorems
and cannot be applied
to individual atoms,