Abstract:
The laws of nature are laws of nature in virtue of their relationship to a singular entity which I am calling the law-like lump. The law-like lump is a pattern within the time-evolution of the world, but it also has being in its own right, even apart from the being which it has in virtue of its relationship to the time-evolution. The law-like lump is differentiated into individual laws in two major ways. Firstly, it is differentiated by the equations of fundamental physics. Differentiated in this way, it yields laws of temporal evolution. They govern the motion of the fields constituting the time-evolution of the world. Secondly, the law-like lump is differentiated by individual objects moving around within the time-evolution. Differentiated in this way, it yields laws which are singular relations between properties. For instance, it yields the law that all metals are conductive.
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