Article ID: CBB001024188

The Epistemology of Hedged Laws (2011)

unapi

Standard objections to the notion of a hedged, or ceteris paribus, law of nature usually boil down to the claim that such laws would be either (1) irredeemably vague, (2) untestable, (3) vacuous, (4) false, or a combination thereof. Using epidemiological studies in nutrition science as an example, I show that this is not true of the hedged law-like generalizations derived from data models used to interpret large and varied sets of empirical observations. Although it may be `in principle impossible' to construct models that explicitly identify all potential causal interferers with the relevant generalization, the view that our failure to do so is fatal to the very notion of a cp-law is plausible only if one illicitly infers metaphysical impossibility from epistemic impossibility. I close with the suggestion that a model-theoretic approach to cp-laws poses a problem for recent attempts to formulate a Mill--Ramsey--Lewis theory of cp-laws.

...More

Description Uses epidemiological studies in nutrition science.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001024188/

Similar Citations

Book Huneman, Philippe; Lambert, Gérard; Silberstein, Marc; (2015)
Classification, Disease, and Evidence: New Essays in the Philosophy of Medicine (/isis/citation/CBB001510440/)

Article Stefano Canali; (2020)
Making evidential claims in epidemiology: Three strategies for the study of the exposome (/isis/citation/CBB477913919/)

Article M. Cristina Amoretti; Elisabetta Lalumera; (2021)
Non-epistemic factors in epidemiological models. The case of mortality data (/isis/citation/CBB546389082/)

Article Lloyd, Elisabeth A.; (2012)
The Role of “Complex” Empiricism in the Debates about Satellite Data and Climate Models (/isis/citation/CBB001221697/)

Article Stefano Canali; (2019)
Evaluating Evidential Pluralism in Epidemiology: Mechanistic Evidence in Exposome Research (/isis/citation/CBB460640168/)

Article Vasconcelos, Francisco de Assis Guedes de; Santos, Leonor Maria Pacheco; (2007)
Tributo a Manoel da Gama Lobo (1835-1883), pioneiro na epidemiologia da deficiência de vitamina A no Brasil (/isis/citation/CBB000831553/)

Book Federico Boem; (2023)
Pensare per mappe. Ontologie per una pratica scientifica (/isis/citation/CBB601271154/)

Article Joby Varghese; (2019)
Philosophical Import of Non-Epistemic Values in Clinical Trials and Data Interpretation (/isis/citation/CBB349594811/)

Article Sahotra Sarkar; Thomas Uebel; (2015)
Introduction: Formal Epistemology and the Legacy of Logical Empiricism (/isis/citation/CBB121104592/)

Thesis Michael T. Stuart; (2015)
Thought Experiments in Science (/isis/citation/CBB598336466/)

Book Dicken, Paul; (2010)
Constructive Empiricism: Epistemology and the Philosophy of Science (/isis/citation/CBB001020908/)

Article Rodolfo Garau; (2020)
Gassendi's Critique of Astrology (/isis/citation/CBB174175518/)

Book Parsons, Keith M.; (2014)
It Started with Copernicus: Vital Questions about Science (/isis/citation/CBB001510107/)

Article Oriana Rosero González; Fabián Alberto Jaimes Barragán; (2023)
"Cometomancy" and Francisco Sánchez: An additional reflection on to causality (/isis/citation/CBB526376009/)

Book Wolfe, Charles T.; Gal, Ofer; (2010)
The Body as Object and Instrument of Knowledge: Embodied Empiricism in Early Modern Science (/isis/citation/CBB001031882/)

Article Sara Bianchini; (2014)
Montaigne e Popper. L'induzione e la scienza (/isis/citation/CBB849175611/)

Chapter Waldow, Anik; (2010)
Empiricism and Its Roots in the Ancient Medical Tradition (/isis/citation/CBB001031896/)

Chapter Wolfe, Charles T.; (2010)
Empiricist Heresies in Early Modern Medical Thought (/isis/citation/CBB001031898/)

Authors & Contributors
Wolfe, Charles T.
Canali, Stefano
Fabián Alberto Jaimes Barragán
Gori, Pietro
M. Cristina Amoretti
Boem, Federico
Concepts
Philosophy of science
Empiricism
Epistemology
Medicine
Epidemiology
Data analysis
Time Periods
21st century
17th century
20th century
19th century
Early modern
Ancient
Places
Europe
Brazil
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment