Thinking about Non-Universal Laws.

Reutlinger, Alexander; Unterhuber, Matthias

What are ceteris paribus (cp) laws? Which disciplines appeal to cp laws and which semantics, metaphysical underpinning, and epistemological dimensions do cp law statements have? Firstly, we give a short overview of the recent discussion on cp laws, which addresses these questions. Secondly, we suggest that given the rich and diverse literature on cp laws a broad conception of cp laws should be endorsed which takes into account the different ways in which laws can be non-universal (by being "non-strict", "inexact", "exception-ridden", "idealized" and so forth). Finally, we provide an overview of the special issue on that basis and describe the individual contributions to the special issue according to the issues they address: (a) the range of applications of cp laws as well as the (b) semantics, (c) metaphysics, and (d) epistemology pertaining to cp law statements.

PHYSICAL laws; METAPHYSICS; THEORY of knowledge; NEWTON'S second law of motion; SEMANTICS (Philosophy)

Erkenntnis, 2014, Vol 79, Issue 10, p1703

0165-0106

Academic Journal

10.1007/s10670-014-9654-5