Download or read book Inference and the Explanatory Virtues written by David H. Fielding and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Best Explanations written by Kevin McCain and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty philosophers offer new essays examining the form of reasoning known as inference to the best explanation - widely used in science and in our everyday lives, yet still controversial. Best Explanations represents the state of the art when it comes to understanding, criticizing, and defending this form of reasoning.
Download or read book Inference to the Best Explanation written by Peter Lipton and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inference to the Best Explanation is an unrivalled exposition of a theory of particular interest to students both of epistemology and the philosophy of science.
Download or read book Inference to the Best Explanation and the Challenge of Skepticism written by Bryan C. Appley and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In chapter five I attempt to vindicate the various explanatory virtues probabilistically. In doing so I attempt to express or translate the various explanatory virtues in terms of probabilities in order to show that having those virtues makes a view at least prima facie more probable. In chapters six and seven I explain and evaluate the various arguments to the best explanation against skepticism present in current philosophical literature. I attempt to show that extant arguments fail to appreciate the virtues possessed by classical (and some new) skeptical scenarios. In chapter eight I briefly consider some options that may be open to the antiskeptic moving forward. All routes forward contain considerable obstacles, but there are some fruitful areas of research to pursue.
Download or read book Theoretical Virtues in Science written by Samuel Schindler and published by . This book was released on 2018-05-24 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In-depth discussion of the value of scientific theories, bringing together and advancing current important debates in realism.
Download or read book Inference to the Best Explanation Bayesianism and the Context of Pursuit written by Frank Cabrera and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation critically examines the popular model of non-demonstrative inference known as "Inference to the Best Explanation" (IBE), and more broadly, the role that explanatory considerations play in scientific practice. Despite its seeming pervasiveness in science, IBE remains poorly understood. Given the frequency with which IBE appears to show up, not only in science, but also in daily life and in philosophical debates, an investigation into the nature of IBE will also have implications for traditional epistemology and philosophical methodology. My conclusions about the status of IBE, however, are mixed. While I show how some traditional objections that have plagued IBE can be solved (Chs. 1-2), I conclude that IBE, at least in its canonical formulation, is untenable as an account of scientific reasoning. The central obstacle that IBE faces is that certain "explanatory virtues" cannot be justified by Bayesianism, the dominant approach in philosophy of science to explicating theory confirmation (Chs. 3-4). As I demonstrate, only some explanatory virtues can be given a Bayesian explication. As a potential reply, I formulate a novel argument that appeals to the epistemic value of understanding, whose conclusion is that IBE is superior to Bayesianism; however, as I show, this argument fails (Ch. 5). Finally, I attempt salvage some aspects of IBE that are difficult to justify from the Bayesian framework by arguing that certain explanatory virtues are important in determining which hypotheses are worthy of pursuit (Ch. 6). To defend this view, I appeal to the recent high-profile dispute over the scientific legitimacy of string theory. Ultimately then, we are left with a two-tiered view of the explanatory virtues, one according to which some virtues relevant to what theory ought to be believed, whereas others are relevant to what theory ought to be pursued.
Download or read book Theism and Explanation written by Gregory W. Dawes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-09-10 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely study, Dawes defends the methodological naturalism of the sciences. Though religions offer what appear to be explanations of various facts about the world, the scientist, as scientist, will not take such proposed explanations seriously. Even if no natural explanation were available, she will assume that one exists. Is this merely a sign of atheistic prejudice, as some critics suggest? Or are there good reasons to exclude from science explanations that invoke a supernatural agent? On the one hand, Dawes concedes the bare possibility that talk of divine action could constitute a potential explanation of some state of affairs, while noting that the conditions under which this would be true are unlikely ever to be fulfilled. On the other hand, he argues that a proposed explanation of this kind would rate poorly, when measured against our usual standards of explanatory virtue.
Download or read book Causal Learning written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 1996-09-26 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Psychology of Learning and Motivation publishes empirical and theoretical contributions in cognitive and experimental psychology, ranging from classical and instrumental conditions to complex learning and problem solving. This guest-edited special volume is devoted to current research and discussion on associative versus cognitive accounts of learning. Written by major investigators in the field, topics include all aspects of causal learning in an open forum in which different approaches are brought together. Up-to-date review of the literature Discusses recent controversies Presents major advances in understanding causal learning Synthesizes contrasting approaches Includes important empirical contributions Written by leading researchers in the field
Download or read book Conceptual Revolutions written by Paul Thagard and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this path-breaking work, Paul Thagard draws on the history and philosophy of science, cognitive psychology, and the field of artificial intelligence to develop a theory of conceptual change capable of accounting for all major scientific revolutions. The history of science contains dramatic episodes of revolutionary change in which whole systems of concepts have been replaced by new systems. Thagard provides a new and comprehensive perspective on the transformation of scientific conceptual systems. Thagard examines the Copernican and the Darwinian revolutions and the emergence of Newton's mechanics, Lavoisier's oxygen theory, Einstein's theory of relativity, quantum theory, and the geological theory of plate tectonics. He discusses the psychological mechanisms by which new concepts and links between them are formed, and advances a computational theory of explanatory coherence to show how new theories can be judged to be superior to previous ones.
Download or read book Explanation written by Giora Hon and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For some years we have been conducting at the University of Haifa an interdisciplinary seminar on explanation in philosophy and psychology. We habitually begin the seminar with some philosophical reflections on explanation - an analysis of the concept and its metaphysical underpinnings. We discuss the various models and proceed to examine explanation in the setting of psychology. Thus, from the outset, we have focused not only on the concept itself but also on its application. The objective that we have set for the seminar, attended by students from both departments, Philosophy and Psychology, has been a critical understanding of the concept of explanation, its use and limitations. We were keen on deepening our understanding of the concept and on exploring its applications in fields of knowledge other than psychology. This was the motivation for convening an international conference on explanation and its application. The conference took place in the spring of 1998 under the auspices of the University of Haifa. The present book is the fruit of this meeting. The reader should note that the second part of the Introduction presents a detailed analytical account of the book. We hope that this overview will facilitate efficient use of the book by directing the reader's attention to those issues that might be of interest to him or her.
Download or read book Explanatory Pluralism written by C. Mantzavinos and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-26 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explaining phenomena is one of the main activities in which scientists engage. This book proposes a new philosophical theory of scientific explanation by developing and defending the position of explanatory pluralism with the help of the notion of 'explanatory games'. Mantzavinos provides a descriptive account of the explanatory activity of scientists in different domains and shows how they differ from commonsensical explanations offered in everyday life by ordinary people and also from explanations offered in religious contexts. He also shows how an evaluation and a critical appraisal of explanations put forward in different social arenas can take place on the basis of different values. Explanatory Pluralism provides solutions to all important descriptive and normative problems of the philosophical theory of explanation as illustrated in sophisticated case studies from economics and medicine, but also from mythology and religion.
Download or read book Making Things Happen written by James Woodward and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-27 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Making Things Happen, James Woodward develops a new and ambitious comprehensive theory of causation and explanation that draws on literature from a variety of disciplines and which applies to a wide variety of claims in science and everyday life. His theory is a manipulationist account, proposing that causal and explanatory relationships are relationships that are potentially exploitable for purposes of manipulation and control. This account has its roots in the commonsense idea that causes are means for bringing about effects; but it also draws on a long tradition of work in experimental design, econometrics, and statistics. Woodward shows how these ideas may be generalized to other areas of science from the social scientific and biomedical contexts for which they were originally designed. He also provides philosophical foundations for the manipulationist approach, drawing out its implications, comparing it with alternative approaches, and defending it from common criticisms. In doing so, he shows how the manipulationist account both illuminates important features of successful causal explanation in the natural and social sciences, and avoids the counterexamples and difficulties that infect alternative approaches, from the deductive-nomological model onwards. Making Things Happen will interest philosophers working in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of social science, and metaphysics, and as well as anyone interested in causation, explanation, and scientific methodology.
Download or read book Inference and Consciousness written by Timothy Chan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-12-20 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inference has long been a central concern in epistemology, as an essential means by which we extend our knowledge and test our beliefs. Inference is also a key notion in influential psychological accounts of mental capacities, ranging from problem-solving to perception. Consciousness, on the other hand, has arguably been the defining interest of philosophy of mind over recent decades. Comparatively little attention, however, has been devoted to the significance of consciousness for the proper understanding of the nature and role of inference. It is commonly suggested that inference may be either conscious or unconscious. Yet how unified are these various supposed instances of inference? Does either enjoy explanatory priority in relation to the other? In what way, or ways, can an inference be conscious, or fail to be conscious, and how does this matter? This book brings together original essays from established scholars and emerging theorists that showcase how several current debates in epistemology, philosophy of psychology and philosophy of mind can benefit from more reflections on these and related questions about the significance of consciousness for inference.
Download or read book Reason and Explanation written by T. Poston and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-08-03 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new explanationist account of epistemic justification, Poston argues that the explanatory virtues provide all the materials necessary for a plausible account of justified belief. There are no purely autonomous reasons. Rather reasons occur only within an explanatory coherent set of beliefs.
Download or read book Wondrous Truths written by J. D. Trout and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explaining the world around us, and the life within, is one of the most uniquely human drives, and the most celebrated activities of science. The central idea of this book is that modern science triumphed through an awkward assortment of accident and luck, geography and personal idiosyncrasy. 'Wondrous Truths' provides a fresh, daring, and genuine alternative to established views of scientific progress, and recovers at once the majesty of science and the grand sweep of big ideas.
Download or read book Logic in Question written by Jean-Yves Béziau and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-01-11 with total page 743 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This contributed volume collects papers related to the Logic in Question workshop, which has taken place annually at Sorbonne University in Paris since 2011. Each year, the workshop brings together historians, philosophers, mathematicians, linguists, and computer scientists to explore questions related to the nature of logic and how it has developed over the years. As a result, chapter authors provide a thorough, interdisciplinary exploration of topics that have been studied in the workshop. Organized into three sections, the first part of the book focuses on historical questions related to logic, the second explores philosophical questions, and the third section is dedicated to mathematical discussions. Specific topics include: • logic and analogy• Chinese logic• nineteenth century British logic (in particular Boole and Lewis Carroll)• logical diagrams • the place and value of logic in Louis Couturat’s philosophical thinking• contributions of logical analysis for mathematics education• the exceptionality of logic• the logical expressive power of natural languages• the unification of mathematics via topos theory Logic in Question will appeal to pure logicians, historians of logic, philosophers, linguists, and other researchers interested in the history of logic, making this volume a unique and valuable contribution to the field.
Download or read book Economics for Real written by Aki Lehtinen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first comprehensive and critical examination of Mäki’s realist philosophy of economics.
