On Laws of Nature

Abstract

Natural laws are at the heart of contemporary academic studies. Yet, the basic question on what is accounted as a law is still open to debate among philosophers of science. This paper provides a survey on three representativephilosophical accounts of laws of nature —— the regularity (Humean) account, the necessitarian account by David Armstrong and the best system account of laws by David Lewis. By pointing out the disputes among these views whichstem from the dilemma pointed out by van Frassen – the tension between the problem of inference and the problem of identification, this paper provides a clear way to compare these accounts and a guidance for further research.