Normal conditions are a restriction on philosophical arguments, especially in epistemology, in order to avoid objections perceived as digressive. As a reply to objections to an explanation of a phenomenon, e.g. a hypothesis or a theory, it is said, argument X holds under normal conditions. In some cases, the concept of normal conditions tends to be rather blurred and the reply under normal conditions can tend to extend to everything that contradicts an argument. In cases, when the argument of normal conditions comes too often, according to the principle of Occam's Razor another explanation X' has to be found.
Famous quotes containing the words normal and/or conditions:
“To try to control a nine-month-old’s clinginess by forcing him away is a mistake, because it counteracts a normal part of the child’s development. To think that the child is clinging to you because he is spoiled is nonsense. Clinginess is not a discipline issue, at least not in the sense of correcting a wrongdoing.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)
“Men can intoxicate themselves with ideas as effectually as with alcohol or with bang and produce, be dint of serious thinking, mental conditions hardly distinguishable from monomania.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)