Probability and rational choice

Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 18 (1):01 (2014)
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Abstract

In this paper I will discuss the rationality of reasoning about the future. There are two things that we might like to know about the future: which hypotheses are true and what will happen next. To put it in philosophical language, I aim to show that there are methods by which inferring to a generalization and inferring to the next instance can be shown to be normative and the method itself shown to be rational, where this is due in part to being based on evidence and in part on a prior rational choice. I will also argue that these two inferences have been confused, being distinct not only conceptually but also in their results and that methods that are adequate for one are not by themselves adequate for the other. A number of debates over method founder on this confusion and do not show what the debaters think they show.

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David Botting
De La Salle University (PhD)

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References found in this work

The inference to the best explanation.Gilbert H. Harman - 1965 - Philosophical Review 74 (1):88-95.
The continuum of inductive methods.Rudolf Carnap - 1952 - [Chicago]: University of Chicago Press.
The Continuum of Inductive Methods.Rudolf Carnap - 1953 - Philosophy 28 (106):272-273.
Believing and Accepting.Pascal Engel (ed.) - 2000 - Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Rational prediction.Wesley C. Salmon - 1981 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 32 (2):115-125.

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