This new study provides a refreshing look at the issue of exceptions and shows that much of the problem stems from a failure to recognize at least two kinds of exception-ridden law: ceteris paribus laws and ideal laws. Billy Wheeler offers the first book-length discussion of ideal laws. The key difference between these two kinds of laws concerns the nature of the conditions that need to be satisfied and their epistemological role in the law's formulation and discovery. He presents a Humean-inspired approach that draws heavily on concepts from the information and computing sciences. Specifically, Wheeler argues that laws are best seen as algorithms for compressing empirical data and that ideal laws are needed as 'lossy compressors' for complex data.

Major figures in the metaphysics of science receive special attention such as Ronald Giere, Bas van Fraassen, Nancy Cartwright, David Lewis and Marc Lange. This book is essential reading for philosophers of science and will interest metaphysicians, epistemologists and others interested in applying concepts from computing to traditional philosophical problems.

The only book-length investigation of the metaphysics of laws involving idealizations An approach to ideal laws that neither down-plays their status as genuine laws nor invokes controversial metaphysical objects such as capacities, essential natures or necessary connections Innovative use of concepts from information and computing in analysing traditional metaphysical questions

Autorentext
Billy Wheeler is Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai) at Sun Yat-Sen University

Inhalt

Ch 1. Laws of Nature and the Problem of Exceptions.- Ch 2. Governing Law Solutions to Ideal Laws.- Ch 3. Non-Governing Law Solutions to Ideal Laws.- Ch 4. The Algorithmic Theory of Laws.- Ch 5. Is the Universe Compressible?.