PRAGMATIC LAWS

Beatty, Brandon, and Sober agree that biological generalizations, when contingent, do not qualify as laws. Their conclusion follows from a n ormative definition of law-inherited from the Logical Empiricists. I s uggest two additional approaches: paradigmatic and pragmatic. Only the pragmatic represents varying kinds and degrees of contingency and exp oses the multiple relationships found among scientific generalizations . It emphasizes the function of laws in grounding expectation and prom otes the evaluation of generalizations along continua of ontological a nd representational parameters. Stability of conditions and strength o f determination in nature govern projectibility. Accuracy, ontological level, simplicity, and manageability provide additional measures of u sefulness.