[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by whswhs

The laws of physics don't influence the planets at all. The laws of physics are propositions that make up part of the theoretical and conceptual structure of the science of physics, which exists in human minds and in informational media created by human beings such as books and computer files. Human minds do not have the power to control the orbits of the planets.

If I wrote a computer program to emulate planetary orbits, I would need to put (some form of) the laws of physics into it, in order to tell it how to do the calculations needed to update the positions and velocities of the planets. The files that describe the planets have no causal power on their own.

But that's not true of the actual planets. The planets themselves create gravitational fields, and respond to the solar gravitational field and each other's gravitational fields. The planets are not sapient, or even sentient, and cannot know or calculate their own physical interactions; they just act and interact in accord with their physical natures and states. And there are no planetary intelligences guiding them to do so, and no cosmic computer running the solar system through successive orbits. Things just happen as they happen. The orbits are calculable because things have determinate natures and can only act according to those natures; the calculations describe the resulting action but do not control it.

That is, the planets don't need some outside agency or force to make them move on specific orbits. They have specific masses, forms, positions, and velocities. Being what they are, they must do what they do. It's a necessity of their own natures, and not of some external force or will.

Bill Stoddard

I agree with you more than seems to be apparent. But as I said, it is hard for me to explain, even in my own language. Consider me irrational, or philosophically uneducated, or whatever.