Nomological machines

The system of ordered interconnections of a nomological machine means that events of a particular type (inputs) are converted in a regular, predictable fashion into other events (outputs). In the context of the machine, the inputs cause the outputs there is a regular, law-like association between them. The machine itself, however, does not cause the effects, rather it is responsible for the causal laws the relationship between causes and effects (Cartwright, 1999, pl30). For example, the rise in the age at which women have their first child is often said to be one of the causes of the increase in breast cancer in Western countries, as epidemiological... 

In short, chemists must stabilize a specific domain of application of the whole complex in order to determine a quantity of a particular type of body within certain limits imposed by standards of normalization and laws. The sentence all things being equal encompasses the co-adaptation and the channeling of multifarious fluctuations which, in turn, leads to the very possibility of making holistic inferences as regards the performance of the whole complex within the normative framework of a quality control process. The ceteris paribus clause is not illusory in the domain of chemistry but refers to a new type of nomological machine, to use Nancy Cartwright s turn of phrase, that is... 

The idea of nomological machine is interesting for our purpose insofar as it revolves around the key notion of co-stabilization. We nevertheless prefer to use the word preparation instead of that of arrangement. We also prefer to focus our work on the notion of a complex which displays certain type of affordances in the context of chemistry because the mode of access often takes part in the constitution of what chemists are studying and talking about. Following Bachelard s notion of phenomenotechnique (1934), we assert that the question is not one of reality and... 

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