Norman Swartz

Norman Swartz (born 1939) is an American philosopher and professor emeritus (retired 1998) of philosophy, Simon Fraser University. He is the author or co-author of multiple books and multiple articles on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

He attended Burnaby North Secondary School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in physics from Harvard College in 1961, an Master of Arts in history and philosophy of science from Indiana University Bloomington in 1965 and a Ph.D. in history of philosophy of science in 1971 also from Indiana University.^[1] He uses the term physical law to mean the laws of nature as they truly are and not as they are inferred and described in the practice of science.^[2]

Publications

Following is an incomplete list of publications.

• Definitions, Dictionaries, and Meanings (1997, revised 2010)

Books

• Possible Worlds: An Introduction to Logic and Its Philosophy. Co-authored with Raymond Bradley. (Indianapolis: Hackett), 1979.
• The Concept of Physical Law. (New York: Cambridge University Press), 1985.
• Beyond Experience: Metaphysical Theories and Philosophical Constraints. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 1991.

Articles on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

• Laws of Nature
• Truth
• Foreknowledge and Free Will