The Mystery of the Law

This one was probably the most fun I've had with a thought in a long time - occurred to me on the way home from an outdoor meeting tonight in park.

So what, exactly is the law?

I mean is it a fact? Is it a suggestion?

I think sometimes we go to the consequence of violating the law and claim that is its nature, but consider, if I drop a house on a person (as in the Wizard of Oz, for example) the fact that the house landing on the person (consequence) says pretty much nothing about who might have lived in the house, when their birthday was, if they ever served pot roast, what were the curtains before the ugly print ones?

So clearly it is not the consequence of the behavior of law that reveals its nature.

Now, scientific law is actually (usually) a verbal expression of a mathematical description of reality that describes what happens well enough to be useful in making prediction. But science ALWAYS responds to observation. Why? Because an observation outside a law's description is always either outside of its purview, or a counterexample of the mathematical description, or "proof" in a sense. Either way, reality either escapes the power of the description of such a law, or violates its foundations altogether.

So finally, what about eternal and immutable laws?

Well, if such a thing did exist then it would happen in every situation everywhere, to everyone, and under all circumstances. Thus, no one could violate it. Ever. Such a thing would violate the nature of what we supposed to begin with.

Now, in order not to get too lost in tail-chasing, it seems clear that law is not fact, else we could not be morally responsible for violating it. Also, it cannot be mere suggestion, because apparently, there is always a consequence.

I love this. Law is neither fact nor suggestion. Hmmm.

And yet it is.

Isn't this a lovely mystery?

Stay wonderful, folks.