The Method of Relevant Variables and Idealization

Abstract

The paper deals with the L.J.Cohen's method of relevant variables, which is supposed to be a reconstruction of idealization in science. The author is going to show that Cohen's method is not a method of idealization, but a certain similar procedure. Nevertheless, the method of relevant variables can be paraphrased as the method of normalization and specification. This paraphrase allows the idealization approach to science better to handle the complexity of empirical research in science.