Full Idea
When we come upon a counter-instance to a generalisation we can save the putative law, by treating it as potentially analytic and claiming it as a definition. ...Thus magnetism doesn't hold for phosphorus, so we say phosphorus is not a magnetic substance.
Gist of Idea
We can save laws from counter-instances by treating the latter as analytic definitions
Source
Rom Harré (Laws of Nature [1993], 3)
Book Reference
Harré,Rom: 'Laws of Nature' [Duckworth 1993], p.75
A Reaction
He notes this as being particularly true when the laws concern the dispositions of substances, rather than patterns of events.