---
title: "Scientific law"
chunk: 6/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_law"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:29:15.752240+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

In Europe, systematic theorizing about nature (physis) began with the early Greek philosophers and scientists and continued into the Hellenistic and Roman imperial periods, during which times the intellectual influence of Roman law increasingly became paramount.The formula "law of nature" first appears as "a live metaphor" favored by Latin poets Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Manilius, in time gaining a firm theoretical presence in the prose treatises of Seneca and Pliny. Why this Roman origin? According to [historian and classicist Daryn] Lehoux's persuasive narrative, the idea was made possible by the pivotal role of codified law and forensic argument in Roman life and culture.
For the Romans ... the place par excellence where ethics, law, nature, religion and politics overlap is the law court. When we read Seneca's Natural Questions, and watch again and again just how he applies standards of evidence, witness evaluation, argument and proof, we can recognize that we are reading one of the great Roman rhetoricians of the age, thoroughly immersed in forensic method. And not Seneca alone. Legal models of scientific judgment turn up all over the place, and for example prove equally integral to Ptolemy's approach to verification, where the mind is assigned the role of magistrate, the senses that of disclosure of evidence, and dialectical reason that of the law itself.
The precise formulation of what are now recognized as modern and valid statements of the laws of nature dates from the 17th century in Europe, with the beginning of accurate experimentation and the development of advanced forms of mathematics.  During this period, natural philosophers such as Isaac Newton (1642–1727) were influenced by a religious view – stemming from medieval concepts of divine law – which held that God had instituted absolute, universal and immutable physical laws.  In chapter 7 of The World, René Descartes (1596–1650) described "nature" as matter itself, unchanging as created by God, thus changes in parts "are to be attributed to nature. The rules according to which these changes take place I call the 'laws of nature'."   The modern scientific method which took shape at this time (with Francis Bacon (1561–1626) and Galileo (1564–1642)) contributed to a trend of separating science from theology, with minimal speculation about metaphysics and ethics. (Natural law in the political sense, conceived as universal (i.e., divorced from sectarian religion and accidents of place), was also elaborated in this period by scholars such as Grotius (1583–1645), Spinoza (1632–1677), and Hobbes (1588–1679).)
The distinction between natural law in the political-legal sense and law of nature or physical law in the scientific sense is a modern one, both concepts being equally derived from physis, the Greek word (translated into Latin as natura) for nature.

== See also ==

== References ==

== Further reading ==

== External links ==

Physics Formulary, a useful book in different formats containing many or the physical laws and formulae.
Eformulae.com Archived 2011-02-23 at the Wayback Machine, website containing most of the formulae in different disciplines.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Laws of Nature" by John W. Carroll.
Baaquie, Belal E. "Laws of Physics : A Primer" Archived 2006-04-08 at the Wayback Machine. Core Curriculum, National University of Singapore.
Francis, Erik Max. "The laws list".. Physics. Alcyone Systems
Pazameta, Zoran. "The laws of nature". Archived 2014-02-26 at the Wayback Machine Committee for the scientific investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. "Laws of Nature" – By Norman Swartz
Mark Buchanan; Frank Close; Nancy Cartwright; Melvyn Bragg (host) (Oct 19, 2000). "Laws of Nature". In Our Time. BBC Radio 4.