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Laws of Nature

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Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

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Synonyms

Natural law

Introduction

The notion of “law of nature” or “natural law” can refer to two largely distinct topics. In moral philosophy and associated legal discussions, it refers to a belief that God has made it possible for humans to discern some fundamental moral principles or laws either by a direct and unreflective intuition or by a process of reasoning and therefore without needing to be informed of these laws by one or another prescriptive means. The major concern here is with the justice of condemning a lawbreaker when that lawbreaker has never been directly informed of the laws (e.g., as in the case of an inhabitant of a land where the Judeo-Christian teachings, as exemplified in the Old and New Testaments, have not reached). Alternatively, a “law of nature” is held to prescribe what occurs in the natural world and thereby to explain, and account for, the phenomena of nature. Laws of nature in this sense are invoked in natural philosophy and related studies of the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science Studies Unit, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    John Henry

Authors
  1. John Henry
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Correspondence to John Henry .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  2. Dept. of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University Dept. Philosophy & Moral Sci, Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

    Charles T. Wolfe

Section Editor information

  1. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, National University of La Plata, Argentina., Buenos Aires, Ensenada , Argentina

    Silvia Manzo

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Henry, J. (2019). Laws of Nature. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_1-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_1-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

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