Natural Kinds As A Metaphysical Basis Of Scientific Laws

Scientific laws(also called natural laws)has always been an important issue in the study of philosophy of science.An important purpose of scientific research is to discover scientific laws,which are of great importance to the explanation of scientific theories and the prediction of empirical facts.So what are the laws of science? How does the law of science explain? What is the basis for making scientific laws true? On these questions,contemporary philosophers of science have heated debates and formed many different theories and views.The interest of philosophers in natural classes is precisely those classes to which they seek to provide a metaphysical basis for the laws of science,and to which natural classes are sometimes regarded as the application of true scientific laws.Therefore,it is of great significance to study the relationship between scientific laws and natural classes.In the second chapter,the scientific law and its explanation are discussed.From the perspective of scientific laws with the traditional classification of scientific laws can be classified into laws of theory and experience,despite laws of theory and experience,there is another special scientific laws,laws of other similar,it is special in its list is open,and therefore,its characteristic is tolerated.The laws of science are both necessary and support counterfactual conditionals.There are two main theories of explanation as to what is a scientific law,namely,the rule-based explanation and the universal necessity explanation.Rule-based interpretation is based on Hume's criticism of causal necessity and is developed by neo-rulists,insisting on a kind of logical necessity(here mainly refers to causal necessity)rather than physical necessity.The interpretation of universal necessity holds that the laws of science are the physical necessity relations determined by the inevitable relations between the natural properties of a universal(common phase).The third chapter discusses the theory of nature essentialism and HPC theory.According to the traditional essentialism,nature is defined as a group have a common nature things,scientific laws derived from the world nature and structure,scientific laws of nature,is interpreted as specification or standard,that is the nature of things,this nature independent of expectation or agreed,and bring up the universality,inevitability and attributed to scientific laws.However,naturalistic essentialism is challenged by biology,biology has no essence,and the existence of biological law is questionable.Therefore,the nature that provides the basis for scientific laws is questioned.Not satisfied with the challenge of biological classes and biological laws to nature essentialism,Boyd proposed Homeostatic Property Cluster(HPC).Different from traditional essentialism,HPC theory does not require that essential properties are intrinsic,or essential properties are sufficient and necessary for class membership.Kornblith thinks that HPC theory is not the essence but the mechanism of causal self-balance.HPC can explain both the stable existence of natural species and the difference between natural species by means of self-balancing mechanism.However,there are still difficulties in HPC theory,which insists on classification according to similarity,which is contrary to the historical classification supported by the main biological classification theory,and has the suspicion of explanation cycle.Natural classes are also not equal to HPC classes,and natural classes are not sufficient and necessary to become HPC.The last chapter explores the scientific essentialism and scientific laws of nature.Ellis and Bode are the main representatives of contemporary scientific essentialism.Ellis USES the scientific essentialism theory to demonstrate scientific realism,whose core is the relationship between natural classes and scientific laws.He saw it as a new philosophical movement to show that the world was a natural hierarchy.Bird,on the other hand,insists on the "tendency monism",which holds that all the rare basic properties are inclination properties.Ellis' s view of scientific essentialism and Bird's tendency essentialism complement each other,aiming to explain that the world is a natural class hierarchical system governed by scientific laws,so as to provide an ontological basis for the analysis and research of scientific laws.Nature,however,the new nature interpretation into the road,still exist,but than natural traditional essentialism and HPC theory has more advantages,scientific essentialism explain approach tries to find common laws of nature and science,the basis of nature according to the tendency to define the nature,the law of explanation for the different nature of things,according to the nature of the tendency of to weakening of natural class nature,understanding of the laws of science also changed accordingly.With its tendentious essence,the scientific essentialism provides the metaphysical foundation for the laws of science for the natural kind.