Now, as we saw in chapter 3, for neo-Aristotelians like Cartwright, laws of nature are not universal, and they are not ontologically fundamental. What are fundamental are the natures and capacities of things, and laws describe how a thing will behave given its nature and capacities, not necessarily universally but under certain conditions. Natures and capacities (and thus laws, rightly understood) are immanent to things rather than standing above and apart from them like Platonic forms or divine decrees.
