The Availability Heuristic and Inference to the Best Explanation

Logos and Episteme 10 (4):409-432 (2019)
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Abstract

This paper shows how the availability heuristic can be used to justify inference to the best explanation in such a way that van Fraassen's infamous "best of a bad lot" objection can be adroitly avoided. With this end in mind, a dynamic and contextual version of the erotetic model of explanation sufficient to ground this response is presented and defended.

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20690533

DOI

10.5840/logos-episteme201910437

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Michael Shaffer
Gustavus Adolphus College

Citations of this work

There Are No Bad Lots, Only Bad Formulations of Inference to the Best Explanation.Kevin Davey - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
Veritistic Teleological Epistemology, the Bad Lot, and Epistemic Risk Consistency.Raimund Pils - forthcoming - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie:1-21.
Integrating Abduction and Inference to the Best Explanation.Michael J. Shaffer - 2022 - European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 14 (2):1-18.

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