6. Inference to the Best Explanation: Salvation by Laws?

Author: van Fraassen, Bas C.

Source: Laws and Symmetry, November 1989 , pp. 131-151(21)

Publisher: Oxford Scholarship Online Monographs

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Abstract:

Induction has given way to Infere nce to the Best Explanation (IBE) in the epistemology hospitable to realism, or to metaphysics in general. Both Dretske and Armstrong provide severe critiques of traditional notions of Induction, and offer new foundations for inductive methods. This chapter and the next argue that neither Induction nor IBE qualifies as a rational strategy for change of opinion.

Keywords: inference to the best explanation; epistemology; David Armstrong; Fred Dretske; rationality; induction

Document Type: Research article

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