Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T20:52:51.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hard and Soft Accidental Uniformities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Eduardo H. Flichman
Eduardo H. Flichman*
Affiliation:
Ciclo Básico Común Universidad de Buenos Aires
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I discuss some aspects of the epistemological distinction between laws of nature and accidental uniformities. In order that the exposition be self-contained I briefly provide a taxonomy proposed in another work for statements that appear in a scientific theory. Once this taxonomy has been presented I attempt to prove two very different types of accidental uniformities: hard and soft. The distinction is fundamental because the latter have frequently been confused with laws of nature. I try to justify why I believe that these statements are accidental uniformities and not laws of nature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 31 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

This paper has been translated into English by Martin Eayrs. A substantial portion of this paper was read at the Coloquio de Filosofia de la Ciencia (Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science) organized by the Universidad Nacional de Catamarca, in Catamarca, Argentina, from 6–10 May 1994.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, SADAF (Sociedad Argentina de Análisis Filosófico), Bulnes 642, (1176) Capital Federal, Argentina.

References

Armstrong, D. M. (1984), What is a Law of Nature? Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bosch, J. (1977), “Sobre el concepto de ley natural”, Crítica, Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía 9: 11–31.Google Scholar
Earman, J. (1986), A Primer on Determinism. Dordrecht: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-010-9072-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flichman, E. H. (1990), “A Crucial Distinction: Initial Data and Law Application Instances”, Crítica, Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía 22: 75–84.Google Scholar
Flichman, E. H. (1992), “Leyes naturales y haces naturales: Aportes para batallas inconclusas”, Cuadernos de Filosofía 23: 53–62.Google Scholar
Hempel, C. G. and Oppenheim, P. (1948), “Studies in the Logic of Explanation”, Philosophy of Science 15: 135–175.10.1086/286983CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. (1973), Counterfactuals. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mill, J. S. ([1843] 1974), A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation. Books 1–3. Edited by J. M. Robson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Orayen, R. (1977), “Necesidad fisica: algunas dificultades lógico-semánticas”, Crítica, Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía 9: 37–55.Google Scholar
Ramsey, F. P. ([1929] 1931), “General Propositions and Causality”, in The Foundations of Mathematics and Other Logical Essays. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 237–255.Google Scholar
Ramsey, F. P. ([1928] 1978), “Universals of Law and of Fact”, in Foundations: Essays in Philosophy, Logic, Mathematics and Economics. Edited by Mellor, D. H. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 128–132.Google Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1947), Elements of Symbolic Logic. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1976), Laws, Modalities and Counterfactuals. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. C. (1976), “Foreword”, in H. Reichenbach, pp. vii–xliii.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. C. (1989), “Four Decades of Scientific Explanation”, in Kitcher, P. and Salmon, W. C., (eds.), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 13, Scientific Explanations. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–219.Google Scholar