Geert Keil

How the Ceteris Paribus Laws of Physics Lie

After a brief survey of the literature on ceteris paribus clauses and ceteris paribus laws (1.), the problem of exceptions, which creates the need for cp laws, is discussed (2.). It emerges that the so-called skeptical view of laws of nature does not apply to laws of any kind whatever. Only some laws of physics are plagued with exceptions, not the laws (3.). Cp clauses promise a remedy, which has to be located among the further reactions to the skeptical view (4.). After inspecting various translations of the Latin term “ceteris paribus” (5.), the paper arrives at the conclusion that, on the most reasonable translation, there are no such things as cp laws, for reasons of logical form. Cp clauses have an indexical content, so that they need singular propositions as their habitat, not general ones. Cp clauses and the universal generalizations they are supposed to modify are not fit for each other (6.).

SCIENCE ITSELF TEACHES. A FRESH LOOK AT QUINE'S NATURALISTIC METAPHILOSOPHY

Summary Quine famously holds that “philosophy is continuous with natural science”. In order to fi nd out what exactly the point of this claim is, I take up one of his preferred phrases and trace it through his writings, i.e., the phrase “Science itself teaches that …”. Unlike Wittgenstein, Quine did not take much interest in determining what might be distinctive of philosophical investigations, or of the philosophical part of scientifi c investigations. I fi nd this indifference regrettable, and I take a fresh look at Quine’s metaphilosophy, trying to defuse his avowed naturalism by illustrating how little infl uence his naturalistic rhetoric has on the way he actually does philosophy.

Metaphysischer, szientifischer, analytischer und Aristotelischer Naturalismus

Die verastelte Diskussion uber den Naturalismus in der Gegenwartsphilosophie lasst sich grob in einen theoretischen und einen praktischen Zweig gliedern: ›Naturalismus‹ heist in der theoretischen Philosophie etwas anderes als in der Ethik. Die theoretische Philosophie grenze ich dabei durch das Kriterium ab, dass in ihr die Frage, was wir tun sollen, keine Rolle spielt.

Naturalismuskritik und Metaphorologie

In naturlicher Sprache formulierte Theorien uber welchen Gegenstandsbereich auch immer zeichnen sich wesentlich durch ihre zentralen Begriffe aus. In der Begrifflichkeit einer Theorie spiegeln sich ihre Klassifikationen und gegebenenfalls die angenommenen naturlichen Arten wider. Da von den naturlichen Arten unter anderem abhangt, welche induktiven Schlusse moglich sind, kann man ohne Ubertreibung sagen, dass die zentralen Begriffe einer Theorie einen Teil ihrer Erklarungslast tragen.