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Natural and social sciences seem very often, though usually only implicitly, to hedge their laws by ceteris paribus clauses - a practice which is philosophically very hard to understand because such clauses seem to render the laws trivial and unfalsifiable. After early worries the issue is vigorously discussed in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of mind since ca. 15 years.
This volume collects the most prominent philosophers of science in the field and presents a lively, controversial, but well-integrated, highly original and up-to-date discussion of the issue. It will be the reference book in the coming years concerning ceteris paribus laws.
List of contents
Ceteris Paribus Lost.- There Is No Such Thing as a CeterisParibus Law.- Ceteris Paribus - An Inadequate Representation for Biological Contingency.- Ceteris Paribus Laws: Classification and Deconstruction.- Laws, Ceteris Paribus Conditions, and the Dynamics of Belief.- A Semantics and Methodology for Ceteris Paribus Hypothesis.- Who's Afraid of Ceteris-Paribus Laws? Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Them.- In Favor of Laws that Are Not Ceteris Paribus After All.- Cartwright on Explanation and Idealization.
Summary
Natural and social sciences seem very often, though usually only implicitly, to hedge their laws by ceteris paribus clauses - a practice which is philosophically very hard to understand because such clauses seem to render the laws trivial and unfalsifiable.
