Ceteris paribus

Ceteris paribus is a Latin phrase, literally translated as "other things the same," and usually rendered in English as "all other things being equal." A prediction, or a statement about causal or logical connections between two states of affairs, is qualified by ceteris paribus in order to acknowledge, and to rule out, the possibility of other factors which could override the relationship between the antecedent and the consequent.

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A ceteris paribus assumption is often essential in all predictive sciences — in order to formulate scientific laws it is usually necessary to rule out some unspecified set of relevant factors which could interfere with the effect of some causal factor. Experimentally, the ceteris paribus assumption is realized when a scientist controls for all of the independent variables other than the one under study, so that the effect of a single independent variable on the dependent variable can be separated out. By holding all the other relevant factors constant, a scientist is able to focus on the unique effects of a given factor in a complex causal situation.

Related Topics:
Independent variable - Dependent variable

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