Abstract

Many philosophers who defend a Humean account of laws of nature also endorse scientific realism, such as David Lewis and Barry Loewer. It seems as if scientific realism and Humean accounts are orthogonal to, and so are naturally compatible with, one another. I argue otherwise: Humean accounts of laws are at odds with scientific realism in a way that would require significant changes to the standard formulations of scientific realism or Humean accounts to reconcile the two. I focus on two of the most prominent Humean accounts, Lewis' Best System Account and Loewer's Package Deal Account, as examples and argue: Humean accounts like Loewer's, which take the fundamental ontology and laws as a package deal, conflict with scientific realism, while Humean accounts that do not take a package deal, such as Lewis's, do not conform to scientific practice.