This book deals with an internal theme of metaphysics, which is the metaphysics of the laws of nature. The author presents traditional contemporary theories, as well as his own original theory, and evaluates each one at a time. He also addresses the problem of the modality of the laws of nature and makes some criticism of the standard view of necessity as truth in all possible worlds, and shows an application of his discussion to the metaphysics of physics. / Este (...) livro trata de um tema interno à metafísica, que é a metafísica das leis da natureza. O autor apresenta as teorias tradicionais contemporâneas, tal como também a sua própria teoria original, e avalia cada uma delas por vez. Ele também aborda o problema da modalidade das leis da natureza e apresenta uma certa crítica à visão padrão da necessidade como verdade em todos os mundos possíveis, e mostra uma aplicação da sua discussão à metafísica da Física. (shrink)

The purposes of this paper are: (1) to present four theories of the nature of natural laws, (2) to show that only one of them is capable of adequately answering to Tooley's Cases, and (3) indicate why these cases are relevant for our ontology. These purposes are important since the concept of "natural law" is used in many (if not all) realms of natural science and in many branches of philosophy; if Tooley's cases are possible, they represent situations that must (...) be adequately described. If there is only one theory that can adequately describe such cases, there are strong reasons to prefer this theory over the other ones. (shrink)

We propose to replace the present, 400 years-old scientific world picture with an updated, essentially complete model describing the architecture of the Universe. We show that three levels of reality, namely: phenomena, laws and first principles, together form the Universe. Moreover, on the basis of observable behaviour, phenomena, laws and principles can be classified into three fundamentally different branches of natural sciences: physical, biological and psychological. It is shown that the first principles have an ultimate role in the Universe, concentrating (...) the governing potential of the Universe in a most elegant, comprehensive and fundamental manner. We define life and introduce the first principle of biology, i.e. the Bauer principle and show that it is the most fundamental of all the three first principles of the Universe. We consider the similarities and differences of our biological principle in comparison to the onto-poietic principle of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka. With the help of the three first principles of natural sciences, we present arguments indicating the ultimate basis of the long awaited universal science that has a determining role for the development and perspectives of sciences, philosophy, religion, art, and the future of civilization. (shrink)