LTT: E. Shumener
March 2 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Erica Shumener, University of Pittsburgh
The Power to Govern
This will be an online lecture held via Zoom, and pre-registration is required. Please register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dg09CwNYS3GcOJQCekkivg
ABSTRACT: I offer a new account of what it is for the laws of nature to govern. Deterministic laws govern when law propositions productively necessitate which events occur. I define productive necessitation, and I argue that this account of governance can capture what it means for the laws of nature to guide or direct the evolution of events. Once we understand governance in the way I suggest, we can understand why the laws must govern for them to have two theoretical virtues: expansiveness and explanatory power.