Editing Law (principle) (section)

== Laws of nature ==

{{Further|Physical law}}

For example, physical laws such as the [[gravity|law of gravity]] or [[scientific law]]s attempt to describe the fundamental nature of the universe itself. Laws of [[mathematics]] and [[logic]] describe the nature of rational thought and inference ([[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]'s [[transcendental idealism]], and differently [[G. Spencer-Brown]]'s work ''[[Laws of Form]]'', was precisely a determination of the ''[[A priori and a posteriori (philosophy)|a priori]]'' laws governing human thought before any interaction whatsoever with experience).

Within most fields of study, and in science in particular, the elevation of some principle of that field to the status of law usually takes place after a very long time during which the principle is used and tested and verified; though in some fields of study such laws are simply postulated as a foundation and assumed. Mathematical laws are somewhere in between: they are often arbitrary and unproven in themselves, but they are sometimes judged by how useful they are in making predictions about the real world. However, they ultimately rely on arbitrary [[axioms]].