Better Best Systems and the Issue of CP-Laws

Schrenk, Markus

doi:10.1007/s10670-014-9642-9

Cited by 24 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…So it does not appear at first glance that there is any room for including exception-ridden generalisations within the BSA. Despite this, Schrenk (2007; believes Lewis' original theory can tolerate exceptions. To achieve this he utilises Lewis' theory of counterfactuals.…”

Section: The Best System Accountmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Humeanism and Exceptions in the Fundamental Laws of Physics

Wheeler

2018

Principia

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It has been argued that the fundamental laws of physics do not face a ‘problem of provisos’ equivalent to that found in other scientific disciplines (Earman, Roberts and Smith 2002) and there is only the appearance of exceptions to physical laws if they are confused with differential equations of evolution type (Smith 2002). In this paper I argue that even if this is true, fundamental laws in physics still pose a major challenge to standard Humean approaches to lawhood, as they are not in any obvious sense about regularities in behaviour. A Humean approach to physical laws with exceptions is possible, however, if we adopt a view of laws that takes them to be the algorithms in the algorithmic compressions of empirical data. When this is supplemented with a distinction between lossy and lossless compression, we can explain exceptions in terms of compression artefacts present in the application of the lossy laws.

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Section: The Best System Accountmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a more recent paper (Schrenk 2014) he does attempt to address these concerns by developing a version that incorporates examples of laws found in the special sciences. He provides what he calls a 'Better Best System Account' (BBSA).…”

Section: The Best System Accountmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humeanism and Exceptions in the Fundamental Laws of Physics

Wheeler

2018

Principia

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“…First, the perfectly natural properties are, for Lewis at least, the fundamental properties. This makes it very difficult to understand strength in the context of sciences that deal in the non-fundamental (Schrenk [2014], pp. 1791-1792).…”

Section: The Genuineness Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mathematical Explanation by Law

Baron

2019

The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science

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Call an explanation in which a non-mathematical fact is explained -in part or in whole -by mathematical facts: an extra-mathematical explanation. Such explanations have attracted a great deal of interest recently in arguments over mathematical realism. In this paper, a theory of extra-mathematical explanation is developed. The theory is modeled on a deductive-nomological theory of scientific explanation. A basic DN account of extra-mathematical explanation is proposed and then redeveloped in the light of two difficulties that the basic theory faces. The final view appeals to relevance logic and uses resources in information theory to understand the explanatory relationship between mathematical and physical facts.

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“…Unlike Cohen and Callender, Schrenk (, 162–171) proposes an elaborate strategy to integrate cp‐clauses into the BBSA (also Schrenk forthcoming, section 3). Schrenk holds that it is possible to interpret a special science law as contingently true if all actual exceptional individuals to the generalization are explicitly listed.…”

Section: Challenges To the Better Best Systems Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Better Best Systems - Too Good To Be True

Backmann

Reutlinger

2014

Dialectica

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Craig Callender, Jonathan Cohen and Markus Schrenk have recently argued for an amended version of the best system account of laws -the better best system account (BBSA). This account of lawhood is supposed to account for laws in the special sciences, among other desiderata. Unlike David Lewis's original best system account of laws, the BBSA does not rely on a privileged class of natural predicates, in terms of which the best system is formulated. According to the BBSA, a contingently true generalization is a law of a special science S iff the generalization is an axiom (or a theorem) of the best system relative to the set of predicates used by special science S. We argue that the BBSA is, at best, an incomplete theory of special science laws, as it does not account for typical features of special science laws, such as attached ceteris paribus conditions and the idealized character of law statements in these disciplines.1 This paper is fully co-authored.

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Better Best Systems and the Issue of CP-Laws

Cited by 24 publications

References 18 publications

Humeanism and Exceptions in the Fundamental Laws of Physics

Humeanism and Exceptions in the Fundamental Laws of Physics

Mathematical Explanation by Law

Better Best Systems - Too Good To Be True

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