Where Do Physical Laws Come From? The Question Science Cannot Answer

We live in a universe governed by laws. Gravity pulls objects toward each other. Light travels at a fixed speed. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. These laws are so consistent that we often forget to ask the most obvious question:

Why do these laws exist at all?

This is the question we examine in Essay 3 of our Cosmology series. And it reveals something crucial: Science cannot answer it.

The Edge of Scientific Authority

Science is phenomenally good at answering questions within the framework of physical laws. We can explain how planets orbit using gravity. We can predict when an eclipse will occur. We can engineer machines that manipulate matter according to these laws.

But science cannot answer why the laws themselves exist. It cannot explain why the universe is lawful in the first place.

This is not a failure of science. It is the structural limit of what science can do. Science uses the laws to explain phenomena. But to explain the laws themselves, you would need something outside the laws—which, by definition, science cannot access.

This is where philosophy begins.

Three Possible Answers (None Certain)

There are several major philosophical responses to this puzzle, and each has power and gaps:

Metaphysical Realism: The laws exist independently, in some Platonic realm of abstract forms. The universe simply instantiates them. But what is this realm? And why does it exist?

Mathematical Necessity: The laws exist because mathematics is the only internally consistent set of relationships possible. But why should physical reality obey mathematical rules? Why should the abstract be concrete?

Pragmatic Instrumentalism: The laws are just useful fictions—models we use to navigate reality, not descriptions of reality itself. But then why are they so devastatingly effective? Why does a model that "isn't real" predict future events with such precision?

None of these answers is provable. Each one requires an act of faith.

Why This Matters Now

You might think this is a problem for theoretical physicists only. It is not.

This question touches something existential about what it means to live in a cosmos you did not create and cannot fully understand.

If the laws of physics are contingent (could have been different), then reality is fundamentally contingent. There is no ultimate necessity. The universe could have been otherwise. This generates a specific kind of freedom: nothing is cosmically required to be the way it is.

If the laws are necessary (could not have been different), then we live under constraints we cannot escape. We are not free to change the rules; we can only learn to navigate them.

Either way, we face the same truth: we are living in a cosmos whose foundations we cannot fully understand.

This generates a specific kind of humility. Not the false humility of "we know nothing." But the true humility of acknowledging the boundary between what we can know and what we cannot.

We can know how the universe works (physics). We cannot know why the universe works (metaphysics). And we should be honest about that distinction.

Living With It

The point is not to resolve the paradox. The point is to learn how to live with it.

Here is the move:

Accept that the laws of physics are a brute fact—something we cannot reduce further. Use that acceptance to generate freedom.

If the universe's foundational laws are not logically necessary—if you cannot deduce them from pure reason alone—then there is no cosmic plan they must express. There is no predetermined meaning embedded in the structure of reality.

This means you are not beholden to the universe's logic for your meaning. You are free to create your own within it.

This is the core of what we are building: Take the universe as it is. Accept what science can and cannot tell you. Then use that acceptance to build a life of integrity.

Read More

This essay is part of a larger curriculum exploring the foundations of existence, knowledge, and reason. For the full examination of where physical laws come from—and what it means for how we live—read the complete essay on Substack.