Forthcoming
Thematic section

Law and Order: Exploring the Connections between the Ontologies of the Laws of Nature and Space-Time

PDF (Español (España))
  • Manuel Herrera,
  • Ignacio Federico Madroñal,
  • Andrés Okita
Manuel Herrera
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Ignacio Federico Madroñal
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Andrés Okita
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36446/af.e1207

Published 2026-02-04

Keywords

  • Leyes de la naturaleza,
  • Leyes científicas,
  • Espacio-Tiempo,
  • Metafísica de la ciencia,
  • Ontología científica
  • Laws of Nature,
  • Scientific Laws,
  • Space-Time,
  • Metaphysics of Science,
  • Scientific Ontology
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between two fundamental debates in the metaphysics of science: the ontological status of the laws of nature and the nature of space-time. We argue that a well-structured naturalistic metaphysics must consider both issues together, given their close connection in scientific theorizing. In this context, we defend a minimal thesis, according to which these debates cannot be treated in isolation without compromising the internal coherence of a metaphysical conception, and a maximal thesis, which postulates that philosophical positions with similar ontological commitments in each debate tend to align naturally. We examine nomological regularism and necessitarianism, on the one hand, and space-time relationalism, substantialism, and supersubstantivalism, on the other, showing that the argumentative strategies used in both cases exhibit comparable patterns. To evaluate our proposal, we analyze some historical cases that might seem problematic for our theses. Finally, we point out the scope and limitations of our approach and suggest that it provides a fertile conceptual foundation for future research in the metaphysics of science.

PDF (Español (España))

References

  1. Armstrong, D. (1983). What is a law of nature? Cambridge University Press.
  2. Belot, G. (2011). Geometric possibility. Oxford University Press.
  3. Borge, B., & López, C. (2023). Leyes y simetrías en metafísica de la ciencia. Revista Instante, 5(2), 66-99. https://doi.org/10.29327/2194248.5.2-5
  4. Brighouse, C. (1994). Spacetime and holes. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, 1994(1), 117-125.
  5. Clatterbaugh, K. (1999). The causation debate in modern philosophy 1637-1739. Routledge.
  6. Dretske, F. (1977). Laws of nature. Philosophy of Science, 44, 248-268.
  7. Dumsday, T. (2016). Non-mereological pluralistic supersubstantivalism: An alternative perspective on the matter/spacetime relationship. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 46(2), 183-203.
  8. Earman, J. (1989). World enough and space-time: Absolute versus relational theories of space and time. The MIT Press.
  9. Earman, J., & Norton, J. (1987). What price spacetime substantivalism. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 38(4), 515-525.
  10. Ellis, B. (2001). Scientific essentialism. Cambridge University Press.
  11. Ellis, B. (2002). The philosophy of nature: A guide to the new essentialism. Acumen.
  12. Giberman, D. (2021). Supertropestantivalism. The Philosophical Quarterly, 71(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqaa080
  13. Gilmore, C. (2014). Building enduring objects out of spacetime. En C. Calosi & P. Graziani (Eds.), Mereology and the sciences (pp. 5-34). Springer.
  14. Hudson, H. (2006). The metaphysics of hyperspace. Oxford University Press.
  15. Huggett, N. (2006). The regularity account of relational spacetime. Mind, 115(457), 41-73.
  16. Kulstad, M. (1993). Causation and prestablished harmony in the early development of Leibniz’s philosophy. En S. Nadler (Ed.), Causation in early modern philosophy (pp. 93-117). University Press of Pennsylvania.
  17. Le Bihan, B. (2015). Super-relationism: Combining eliminativism about objects and relationism about spacetime. Philosophical Studies, 173(8), 2151-2172.
  18. Lehmkuhl, D. (2016). The metaphysics of super-substantivalism. Noûs, 52(1), 24-46.
  19. Leibniz, G. W. (1980). La polémica Leibniz-Clarke (E. Rada, Ed. & Trad.). Taurus.
  20. Leibniz, G. (1989). Discourse on metaphysics; clarification of the difficulties which Mr. Bayle has found in the new system of the union of soul and body (1698); A new system of the nature and the communication of substances, as well as the union between the soul and the body. En L. Loemker, L. (Trad. & Ed.), Philosophical papers and letters (pp. 303-330, 492-497, 453-461). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  21. Leibniz, G. (2007). Theodicy: Essays on the goodness of God, the freedom of man and the origin of evil (E. M. Huggard, Trad.). BiblioBazaar.
  22. Lewis, D. (1986). Philosophical papers II. Oxford University Press.
  23. Lewis, D. (1994). Humean supervenience debugged. Mind, 103, 473-490.
  24. Loewer, B. (2012). Two accounts of laws and time. Philosophical Studies, 160(1), 115-137.
  25. Maudlin, T. (2007). The metaphysics within physics. Oxford University Press.
  26. Nolan, D. (2014). Balls and all. En S. Kleinschmidt (Ed.), Mereology and location (pp. 91-116). Oxford University Press.
  27. North, J. (2018). A new approach to the substantivalism-relationalism debate. En K. Bennett & D. Zimmerman (Eds.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Vol 11 (pp. 3-43). Oxford University Press.
  28. Psillos, S. (2018). Laws and powers in the frame of nature. En W. Ott & L. Patton (Eds.), Laws of nature (pp. 80-107). Oxford University Press.
  29. Schaffer, J. (2009). Spacetime the one substance. Philosophical Studies, 145(1), 131-148.
  30. Skow, B. (2005). Once upon a spacetime [tesis doctoral]. New York University.
  31. Silva, C. (2021). La concepción del espacio de Leibniz: Substancialismo, monismo y relacionismo substancialoide. Un breve esbozo a partir de un estudio genético. Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía, 38(1), 51-66.
  32. Teller, P. (1991). Substance, relations, and arguments about the nature of space-time. Philosophical Review, 100(3), 363-397.
  33. Tooley, M. (1977). The nature of laws. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 7, 667-698.
  34. Vassallo, A., & Esfeld, M. (2016). Leibnizian relationalism for general relativistic physics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 55, 101-107.
  35. Yang, K. E. (2019). How the geometries of Newton’s flat and Einstein’s curved space-time explain the laws of motion. Journal for History of Mathematics, 32(1), 17-25.