Interventions and Counternomic Reasoning

Philosophy of Science 84 (5):956-969 (2017)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Counternomics—counterfactuals whose antecedents run contrary to the laws of nature—are commonplace in science but have enjoyed relatively little philosophical attention. This article discusses a puzzle about our counternomic epistemology, focusing on cases in which experimental observations are used as evidence for counternomic claims. I show that these cases resist being characterized in familiar interventionist lines, and I suggest a characterization of my own.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,349

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Interventionist Causation in Physical Science.Karen R. Zwier - 2014 - Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh
Of Miracles and Interventions.Luke Glynn - 2013 - Erkenntnis 78 (1):43-64.
Counterfactuals and causal explanation.James Woodward - 2002 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 18 (1):41 – 72.
Psychological studies of causal and counterfactual reasoning.James Woodward - 2008 - In Christoph Hoerl, Teresa McCormack & Sarah R. Beck (eds.), Understanding Counterfactuals, Understanding Causation. Oxford University Press. pp. 16.
Legal reasoning and legal theory revisited.Fernando Atria - 1999 - Law and Philosophy 18 (5):537-577.
Negative mechanistic reasoning in medical intervention assessment.Jesper Jerkert - 2015 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 36 (6):425-437.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-12-15

Downloads
64 (#247,260)

6 months
8 (#352,434)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Peter Tan
Fordham University

Citations of this work

Nomic moral naturalness.Alexios Stamatiadis-Bréhier - 2022 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy:1-22.
Ideal Laws, Counterfactual Preservation, and the Analyses of Lawhood.Peter Tan - 2020 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 98 (3):574-589.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Explanatory Abstractions.Lina Jansson & Juha Saatsi - 2019 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 70 (3):817–844.
A note on scientific essentialism, laws of nature, and counterfactual conditionals.Marc Lange - 2004 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 82 (2):227 – 241.
Counterlegals and Necessary Laws.Toby Handfield - 2004 - Philosophical Quarterly 54 (216):402 - 419.

View all 7 references / Add more references