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The Concept of Physical Law is an original and creative defense of the Regularity theory of physical law, the concept that physical laws are nothing more than descriptions of whatever universal truths happen to be instanced in nature. Prof. Brooks identifies and analyzes the arguments and intuitions of the opposing Necessitation theory, and argues that the standard objection to the Regularity theory turns on a mistaken view of what Regularizes mean by 'physical impossibility'; that it is impossible to construct an empirical test that can distinguish between events Necessitations call 'mere accidents' and those they call 'neurologically necessary', and that the Necessitation theory cannot account for human beings' free wills. It is strange, but on the rare occasions when I have been invited to play the drum in public,1the presenter never thought it necessary to remember that I also deal with theoretical physics. Maybe it's because we respect the arts more than the sciences. Renaissance artists used to say that man's primary interest must be man: however, there are other interesting things in the world, and even artists appreciate sunsets, ocean waves and the walk of the stars across the skies. So there are good reasons to sometimes talk about something else as well. When we look at the beauties of nature, we derive an aesthetic pleasure from direct observation. Among the phenomena of nature, however, there is also a structure, a rhythm that does not appear directly to the eye, but that is revealed only after a more careful analysis; and it is these rhythms and structures that we call physical laws. What I want to discuss in this series of lectures is the general feature of physical laws; if you will, this is a higher level of generality that is above the laws themselves. More precisely, what I want to consider is nature and its more general qualities as they appear on detailed analysis. Now, such a subject has a certain tendency to become too philosophical precisely because it becomes so general: when it is spoken in such general terms that everyone can understand, then the subject is considered profound philosophy. I would like to be a little more.

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