"What are the laws of nature? Do they control the actions and movements of the other things that exist in our world? Is there a sense in which such laws are real things?" "Both scientists and philosophers have been attracted by the view that the world contains laws of nature. It is such laws that dictate the behaviour of particulars, rather than any of those things' intrinsic or internal forces. In this book Stephen Mumford argues against this popular view. He shows that no adequate account has been produced of what such laws in nature would be, or how they would perform the work that has been required of them. In their place, he argues that there are other necessary connections in nature that can do all the work for which we thought laws were needed." "This book offers a holistic and connected account of reality in which the world's elements do not need to be activated or controlled by laws. It is not possible that these elements behave other than they do. They world is more of a jigsaw than a mosaic: its pieces can form only one picture, and laws are no part of it."--Jacket.