1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910585983303321

Autore

Norton John D.

Titolo

The material theory of induction / / John D. Norton

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Calgary, Alberta : , : University of Calgary Press, , [2021]

©2021

ISBN

9781773852553

9781773852539

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (682 pages)

Collana

BSPS Open ; ; v.1

Disciplina

161

Soggetti

Induction (Logic)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Front Matter -- Contents -- Prolog -- The Material Theory of Induction Stated and Illustrated -- What Powers Inductive Inference? -- Replicability of Experiment -- Analogy -- Epistemic Virtues and Epistemic Values: A Skeptical Critique -- Simplicity as a Surrogate -- Simplicity in Model Selection -- Inference to the Best Explanation: The General Account -- Inference to the Best Explanation: Examples -- Why Not Bayes -- Circularity in the Scoring Rule Vindication of Probabilities -- No Place to Stand: The Incompleteness of All Calculi of Inductive Inference -- Infinite Lottery Machines -- Uncountable Problems -- Indeterministic Physical Systems -- A Quantum Inductive Logic -- Epilog -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The fundamental burden of a theory of inductive inference is to determine which are the good inductive inferences or relations of inductive support and why it is that they are so. The traditional approach is modeled on that taken in accounts of deductive inference. It seeks universally applicable schemas or rules or a single formal device, such as the probability calculus. After millennia of halting efforts, none of these approaches has been unequivocally successful and debates between approaches persist. The Material Theory of Induction identifies the source of these enduring problems in the assumption taken at the outset: that inductive inference can be accommodated by a single formal account with universal applicability.



Instead, it argues that that there is no single, universally applicable formal account. Rather, each domain has an inductive logic native to it.The content of that logic and where it can be applied are determined by the facts prevailing in that domain. Paying close attention to how inductive inference is conducted in science and copiously illustrated with real-world examples, The Material Theory of Induction will initiate a new tradition in the analysis of inductive inference.