Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Rethinking Order : After the Laws of Nature - Nancy Cartwright

Rethinking Order

After the Laws of Nature

By: Nancy Cartwright (Editor), Keith Ward (Editor)

Paperback | 21 February 2019

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $71.99

$68.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $17.19 with

 or 

Ships in 3 to 5 business days

This book presents a radical new picture of natural order. The Newtonian idea of a cosmos ruled by universal and exceptionless laws has been superseded; replaced by a conception of nature as a realm of diverse powers, potencies, and dispositions, a 'dappled world'. There is order in nature, but it is more local, diverse, piecemeal, open, and emergent than Newton imagined.

In each chapter expert authors expound the historical context of the idea of laws of nature, and explore the diverse sorts of order actually presupposed by work in physics, biology, and the social sciences. They consider how human freedom might be understood, and explore how Newton's idea of a 'universal designer' might be revised, in this new context.

They argue that there is not one unified totalizing program of science, aiming at the completion of one closed causal system. We live in an ordered universe, but we need to rethink the classical idea of the 'laws of nature' in a more dynamic and creatively diverse way.

Industry Reviews
"... [A] strikingly coherent collection. Individually the contributions are clear and interesting. Furthermore, they are written with a broad audience in mind. One need not be a philosopher of science to comprehend the chapters devoted to issues of scientific representation and the order described, nor trained in metaphysics to appreciate the later chapters devoted to agency, free will, and natural theology.
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Other Editions and Formats

Hardcover

Published: 30th June 2016

More in Metaphysics & Ontology

Beyond Good and Evil : Penguin Classics - Friedrich Nietzsche

RRP $24.99

$14.99

40%
OFF
Thus Spoke Zarathustra : Penguin Classics - Friedrich Nietzsche

RRP $26.99

$22.75

16%
OFF
The Poetics of Space : Penguin Classics - Gaston Bachelard

RRP $32.99

$23.75

28%
OFF
Local Gods : A Philosophy of Spiritual Diversity - Leah Kalmanson

RRP $46.95

$40.75

13%
OFF
The Three Waves of Volunteers and the New Earth - Dolores Cannon
Ethics : Penguin Classics - Benedict De Spinoza

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Why Does E=MC2? : (And Why Should We Care?) - Brian Cox

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
Prana : One Breath, Many Worlds - BERNIE CLARK

RRP $44.99

$37.75

16%
OFF
The Metaphysics : Penguin Classics - Aristotle

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The Courage to Be : The Terry Lectures Series - Paul Tillich

RRP $26.95

$21.75

19%
OFF
There Is No Other : The Way to Harmony and Wholeness - Ram Dass
In Ascension : Longlisted for The Booker Prize 2023 - Martin MacInnes
Soulcraft : Crossing Into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche - Bill Plotkin