High-Level Exceptions Explained

Strevens, Michael

doi:10.1007/s10670-014-9644-7

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 30 publications

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“…The Law of Demand: 'Under the condition of perfect competition, an increase of demand of a commodity leads to an increase of price, given that the quantity of the supply of the commodity remains constant' (Roberts 2004, p. 159;Kincaid 2004, p. 177) 10 The Character of Shield Volcanoes: 'Shield volcanoes erupt effusively' (Strevens 2014(Strevens , p. 1819 The hidden ceteris paribus clause in each case restricts the circumstances at issue. The possibility of other circumstances in which the regularity is not manifest does not necessarily threaten the truth of the law.…”

Section: Consider Some Paradigmatic Examples Of Cp Lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Levelling counterfactual scepticism

Sandgren

Steele

2020

Synthese

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In this paper, we develop a novel response to counterfactual scepticism, the thesis that most ordinary counterfactual claims are false. In the process we aim to shed light on the relationship between debates in the philosophy of science and debates concerning the semantics and pragmatics of counterfactuals. We argue that science is concerned with many domains of inquiry, each with its own characteristic entities and regularities; moreover, statements of scientific law often include an implicit ceteris paribus clause that restricts the scope of the associated regularity to circumstances that are 'fitting' to the domain in question. This observation reveals a way of responding to scepticism while, at the same time, doing justice both to the role of counterfactuals in science and to the complexities inherent in ordinary counterfactual discourse and reasoning. Keywords Counterfactuals • Counterfactual scepticism • Ceteris paribus laws • Contextualism • HájekCounterfactual scepticism, the thesis that most counterfactuals are false, has received a fair amount of attention recently. The discussion of counterfactual scepticism and how one should react to it, either by resisting it somehow or by accepting it and living with the consequences, yields insights into the nature and utility of counterfactuals and counterfactual reasoning.

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Section: Consider Some Paradigmatic Examples Of Cp Lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%