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The “laws of nature” aren’t proscriptive (decrees on the order of nature as commanded by a divine superpower), they’re descriptive - observations about related
by implements 4y ago
The “laws of nature” aren’t proscriptive (decrees on the order of nature as commanded by a divine superpower), they’re descriptive - observations about related phenomena that appear (or are theorised) as being universally true.
When humans achieved “heavier than air flight” they didn’t do so by modifying (or subverting) any physical law - they applied imagination to state of the art knowledge of what the laws suggest about reality to create technology that overcomes gravity by harnessing natural phenomena (thrust + angle of attack + properties of air = lift).
- schoen 4y agoI'm going to be prescriptive and say that you meant "prescriptive" rather than "proscriptive". "Prescriptive" means "requiring" or "normative, specifying, prescribing", while "proscriptive" means (more specifically) "forbidding". It has only a negative sense of saying something is not allowed, while "prescriptive" includes a broader sense of specifying or ordaining something in any way.
- implements 4y agoI was going to argue, but, yeah - that makes sense.