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All Else Being Equal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2001

Peter Lipton
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Abstract

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Most laws are ceteris paribus (cp) laws: they say not that all Fs are G but only that All Fs are G all else being equal. Most philosophical accounts of laws, however, have focused on strict laws. This paper considers how some of the standard philosophical problems about laws change when we switch attention from strict to cp laws and what special problems these laws raise. It is argued that some cp laws do not simply reflect the complexity of the world and the limitations of our minds. Correctly interpreted, they reveal the simplicity that underlies the complexity, a simplicity that it is without our cognitive powers to grasp.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , April 1999 , pp. 155 - 168
Copyright
© The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1999