From Vic West, Rochester, Kent, UK
In response to João Magueijo’s article “Bringing chaos to order”, the term “law of nature” is used to describe a process that has, since its identification, always been observed to be the case. However, a basic tenet in the philosophy of science is that one knows that the observation of the process describes only what has been the case up to this point, that a new observation is always possible and the description of the process (the law) would, in that case, need rephrasing (16 May, p 30).
So, one isn’t committed to having to accept that anything one calls a law is “permanently so”.
So no surprises or issues here, then – it isn’t “backing every football team at random” – it is being able to accept that change can happen to one element and alter the fortunes of a club.
