Descartes on laws of nature as principles

This paper attempts to advance our understanding of the emergence of the modern notion of physical Laws of Nature by situating the earliest known discussions of laws of nature, those of Descartes, in the context of the theory of principles and the broader neo-Aristotelian theory of knowledge acquisition. It is claimed that together these theories are an important, though hitherto over­looked, seam within the conceptual resources from which Descartes’ distinctive and novel notion of Laws of Nature was developed.