What Breathes Fire into the Equations: The Metaphysics of laws of nature.

My project aims to answer Steven Hawking’s question “What breathes fire into the equations?” In other words, what makes an equation or generalization express a law of nature. This is one of the most important issues in the metaphysics of science. Accounts of the metaphysics of laws have consequences for may other issues in philosophy including the natures of objective chance,causation,counterfactuals, fundamental ontology, time and space and free will. The metaphysics of laws of nature are also relevant to some issues in the foundations of physics (interpretations of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics) and theology (fine-tuning arguments and why the universe obeys laws). My project consists of investigating these issues and writing a book and essays on them. Central to my proposed book will be expositing and defending of a novel view about the metaphysical laws (the PDA) that I have been developing. In addition to the book I propose to encourage work on the metaphysics of laws and allied matters and conversations among philosophers and scientists by organizing two workshops at Rutgers on the metaphysics of laws and and also by directing a summer school for graduate students and early career academics at the CEU in Budapest. My project is important and timely since the issues it addresses are central to the metaphysics of science. Deliverables include a book on laws developing my new account, organizing and participating in conferences and a summer school for graduate students, web site for the project, and lectures for philosophy courses I teach at Rutgers. The impact of my project will be an advance in our understanding of laws of nature and related philosophical issues.