Descartes on Necessity and the Laws of Nature

Journal of Analytic Theology 10:277-292 (2022)
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Abstract

This paper is on Descartes’ account of modality and, in particular, his account of the necessity of the laws of nature. He famously argues that the necessity of the “eternal truths” of logic and mathematics depends on God’s will. Here I suggest he has the same view about the necessity of the laws of nature. Further, I argue, this is a plausible theory of laws. For philosophers often talk about something being nomologically or physically necessary because of the laws of nature, but this necessity is thought to be metaphysically contingent. However, they struggle to explain how the laws could be genuinely necessary while being metaphysically contingent. The chief advantage of Descartes view, I argue, is that God’s will can plausibly explain both the necessity of the laws and the contingency of the laws. So, Descartes’ theistic account of laws provides a plausible explanation, perhaps the best explanation, of the contingent-necessity of laws of nature.

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Author's Profile

Nathan Rockwood
Brigham Young University

Citations of this work

Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think.Helen De Cruz - 2024 - Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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References found in this work

Scientific Essentialism.Brian Ellis - 2001 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
What is a Law of Nature?David Armstrong - 1983 - Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Does God Have a Nature?Alvin Plantinga - 1980 - Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
Descartes' Metaphysical Physics.Daniel GARBER - 1992 - Studia Leibnitiana 26 (1):127-128.
Descartes on the creation of the eternal truths.Harry Frankfurt - 1977 - Philosophical Review 86 (1):36-57.

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