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Title

The Role of Kinds in the Semantics of Ceteris Paribus Laws.

Authors

Nickel, Bernhard

Abstract

This paper investigates the interaction between semantic theories for cp-laws (roughly, laws that hold 'all things equal') and metaphysical theories of kinds in the special sciences. Its central conclusion is that cp-laws concerning kinds behave differently from cp-laws concerning non-kinds: 'ravens are black' which concerns the kind corvus corax, behaves differently from from 'albino ravens are white' which concerns the non-kind grouping of albino ravens. I argue that this difference is in the first instance logical: the two sorts of cp-laws give rise to different inferential patterns. I draw two further conclusions. The difference in logical behavior poses a severe problem for extant semantic theories of cp-laws, and: we cannot elucidate the distinction between kinds and non-kinds by suggesting that only kinds can appear in laws.

Subjects

SEMANTICS (Philosophy); PHYSICAL laws; NEWTON'S second law of motion; METAPHYSICS; CORVUS corax; PHILOSOPHY of science

Publication

Erkenntnis, 2014, Vol 79, Issue 10, p1729

ISSN

0165-0106

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1007/s10670-014-9638-5