Laws of nature and moral rules

There is a lot to be said for the Mill-Ramsey-Lewis (MRL) account of laws as the axioms of a system that optimizes a balance of informativeness and simplicity. But there are really serious problems. The deepest is that the MRL regularities seem to systematize but not explain.

Similarly, there is a lot to be said for rule utilitarianism, but it also suffers from really serious problems. The deepest is probably that it just does not seem to be a compelling moral reason to do something harmful that under normal circumstances it is beneficial.

The MRL account of laws and rule utilitarianism are similar and a number of the problems facing them are structurally similar. Most deeply, the MRL laws don’t move things physically and rule utilitarian rules don’t move us morally. But there are also structurally similar technical problems, such as the account of simplicity, the way in which simplicity is to be balanced with informativeness or beneficiality, the apparent influence of future facts on present laws or moral truths, etc.

It is interesting that many of the problems of both accounts can be solved by bringing in theism. For instance, one can get a theistic MRL account of laws by saying that laws are the divinely willed axioms of a system that optimizes a divinely defined balance of informativeness and simplicity. And one can get a theistic rule utilitarian account by saying that laws are the divinely commanded rules that optimize a divinely defined balance of beneficiality and simplicity.

(I myself would prefer not to go for something quite so simple on the moral side: I’d prefer to insert our natures to mediate between God and our duties.)