According to a number of metaphysicians, laws of nature play an indispensable role for the metaphysical explanation of the worldly order. The ground of this explanatory role is the (disputable) fact that laws of nature govern, rather than just describe, the worldly facts.
In a recent work (2021), Ioannidis, Livanios and Psillos (ILP) argue that any governing conception of laws faces what they call the Governing Problem: that is, how laws manage to "tell" nomically-related properties what to do. In order to address the difficulty, ILP propose a Dualist Model according to which both properties with ‘thin’ powers and laws are needed to have a metaphysical explanation of how laws can govern.
The objective of this research project is three-fold:
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To explore the prospects of the metaphysical view that properties have an ultra-light power to be relatable by any nomic relation.
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To explore the prospects of the view that natural properties which possess the aforementioned ultra-light power are powerful qualities.
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To examine the role of fundamental symmetries in the Dualist Model.
The Dualist Model left open at least three important issues:
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First, how "thin" should the suggested powers be?
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Second, what is the impact of the answer to the previous question for the nature of properties?
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Third, what is the role of the fundamental symmetries of laws in the Dualist Model?
