1. What is a Law of Nature?
2. In what follows I shall use the termsregularity uniformityto refer to general facts and the termgeneralizationto refer to a statement or proposition asserting the existence of such facts. If a generalization is true, then there exists the corresponding regularity. Some (but not necessarily all) versions of semantic anti-realism that are consonant with the anti-realism and minimalism of this paper may wish to make this a biconditional.
3. This stems from Peacocke's Principle of Dependence: ‘There can be nothing more to the nature of a concept than is determined by a correct account of the capacity of a thinker who has mastered the concept to have propositional attitudes to contents containing that concept’ (5). The P-characterization I give is modified in that I regard the conditions cited as giving necessaryand sufficientconditions for concept possession. Without making the conditions sufficient, there is a danger that the characterization may not specify a unique concept.