Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony
A theorem is a proposition. A natural law is what a theorem attempts to describe -- a theorem is false if it fails to match the actual behavior of nature.
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A theorem is a proposition that is assessed as valid because it follows from a set of assumptions by deductive reasoning. But in ordinary scientific usage, a law is a proposition that is assessed as true because it is a general statement that encompasses a whole body of observations; that is, it's based on induction and faces all the usual questions about induction.
And when scientists talk about laws, they are talking about propositions: Newton's laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics, Newton's law of gravity, Mendeleyev's periodic law, the ideal gas law (and the more specific laws that it combines), Mendel's laws of inheritance . . . all of those exist in human minds, and in documents written by human beings.
And they are not literally laws: they are not enacted by legislators or by constitutional conventions or by treaties or by electorates or even by dictatorial decrees, they are not applied by judges, they are not enforced in any way.
Bill Stoddard
Bill Stoddard