Skip to main content
Log in

Explicativity, corroboration, and the relative odds of hypotheses

  • Published:
Synthese Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Bibliography

  • Card, W. I. and Good, I. J.: 1971/73, ‘A Logical Analysis of Medicine’, in A Companion to Medical Studies, Vol. 3 (ed. by R. Passmore and J. S. Robson), Blackwells, Oxford, Chap. 60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carnap, Rudolf: 1950, Logical Foundations of Probability, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carnap, Rudolf and Jeffrey, Richard C.: 1971, Studies in Inductive Logic and Probability, University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coolidge, J. L.: 1916, A Treatise on the Circle and the Sphere, Oxford.

  • de Finetti, B.: 1968/70, ‘Initial Probabilities: a Prerequisite for Any Valid Induction’, in Induction, Physics, and Ethics (ed. by P. Weingartner and G. Zecha), D. Reidel, Dordrecht, pp. 1–32 (with discussion).

    Google Scholar 

  • de Finetti, B.: 1971, ‘Probabilità di una teoria e probabilità dei fatti’, in Studi di probabilità, statistica e ricerca operativa in onore di Giuseppe Pompili, Oderisi, Gubbio, pp. 86–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, K. S.: 1973, ‘A Measure of Statistical Simplicity’, mimeographed, 32. pp.

  • Good, I. J.: 1947/50, Probability and the Weighing of Evidence, Charles Griffin, London, Hafners, New York, 1950, pp. 119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1951/52, ‘Rational Decisions’, J. Roy. Statistical Society B 14, 107–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1952, Review of G. H. von Wright's book A Treatise on Induction and Probability, J. Roy. Statistical Society, A 115, 283–285.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1954, Review of K. R. Popper ‘Degrees of Confirmation’, Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 5, 143–147; Math. Rev. 16, 376.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1957, ‘Distribution of Word Frequencies’, letter in Nature 179, 595.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1958, ‘Significance Tests in Parallel and in Series’, J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 53, 799–813.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1958/59, ‘Could a Machine Make Probability Judgements?’, Computers and Automation 8, 14–16 and 24–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1959, ‘Kinds of Probability’, Science 129, 443–447.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1959/60, Review of K. R. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Math. Rev. 21, 1171–1173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1960a, ‘Gravitational Frequency Shift’, letter in The New Scientist, p. 483.

  • Good, I. J.: 1960b, ‘Effective Sampling Rates for Signal Detection: or Can the Gaussian Model Be Salvaged?’, Information and Control 3, 116–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1960/61, ‘Weight of Evidence, Causality, and False-Alarm Probabilities’, Information Theory, Fourth London Symposium, Bucterworth, London, pp. 125–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1960/62, ‘Subjective Probability as the Measure of a Non-Measurable Set’, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science (ed. by E. Nagel, P. Suppes, and A. Tarski), Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp. 319–329.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1960/62/64, ‘The Mind-Body Problem or Could an Android Feel Pain?’, in Theories of the Mind (ed. by Jordan Scher), Glencoe Free Press, New York; Macmillan, London, New York, pp. 490–518.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1960/68, ‘Weight of Evidence, Corroboration, Explanatory Power, Information, and the Utility of Experiments’, J. Roy. Statistical Society B 22, 319–331; 30, 203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1961a, ‘A Causal Calculus’, Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 11, 305–318; 12, 43–51; 13, 88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1961b, ‘The Paradox of Confirmation, II’, Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 12, 63–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1961/62/65, ‘How Rational Should a Manager Be?’ Management Science 8, 383–393. Reprinted, with numerous minor improvements in Executive Readings in Management Science (ed. by M. K. Starr), Macmillan, New York and London, pp. 88–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1962/63, ‘Maximum Entropy for Hypothesis Formulation, Especially for Multidimensional Contingency Tables’, Ann. Math. Statist. 34, 911–934.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1962/64, ‘Measurements of Decisions’ in New Perspectives in Organization Research (ed. by W. W. Cooper, H. J. Leavitt and M. W. Shelly II), Wiley, New York, 1964, Chap. 21, pp. 391–404.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1964/65, ‘Categorization of Classification’, Mathematics and Computer Science in Biology and Medicine, HMSO, London, pp. 115–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1965a, ‘Speculations Concerning the First Ultra-Intelligent Machine’, Advances in Computers 6, 31–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1965b, The Estimation of Probabilities: An Essay on Modern Bayesian Methods, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. (Paperback edn., 1968.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1965c, Letter in The American Statistician 19 (June), p. 43, concerning Tippett's random numbers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1965/67, ‘A Bayesian Significance Test for Multinomial Distributions’, J. Roy. Statistical Society, B 29, 399–431 (with discussion).

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1966a, ‘A Derivation of the Probabilistic Explication of Information’, J. Roy. Statistical Society B 28, 578–581.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1966b, ‘How to Estimate Probabilities’, J. Inst. Math. Applics 2, 364–383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1966/69, ‘Statistics of Language’, Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Information, and Control (ed. by A. R. Meetham), Pergamon Press, pp. 567–581.

  • Good, I. J.: 1967a, ‘On the Principle of Total Evidence’, Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 17, 319–321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1967b, ‘The White Shoe is a Red Herring’, Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 17, 322.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1967c, Review of Ian Hacking, Logic of Statistical Inference, Math. Rev. 29, 560; and in Nature 213, 233–234, entitled ‘Probability or Support’.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1967d, Contribution to the discussion of S. F. Buck and A. J. Wicken, ‘Models for Use in Investigating the Risk of Mortality from Lung Cancer and Bronchitis’, Applied Statistics J. Roy. Statististical Society C 16, 206–208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1967/68, ‘Corroboration, Explanation, Evolving Probability, Simplicity, and a Sharpened Razor’, Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 19, 123–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1968, ‘The Utility of a Distribution’, Nature 219, 1392.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1968/69a, ‘A Subjective Analysis of Bode's Law and an ‘Objective’ Test for Approximate Numerical Rationality’, J. Amer. Sci. Assoc. 64, 23–66 (with discussion).

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1968/69b, ‘What is the Use of a Distribution?’, in the Second International Symposium on Multivariate Statistics, Dayton, Ohio, June 17, 1968; Multivariate Analysis II (ed. by P. R. Krishnaiah), Academic Press, New York, 1969, pp. 83–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1968/70a, Discussion of Bruno de Finetti's paper ‘Initial Probabilities: a Prerequisite for Any Valid Induction’, Synthese 20 (1969), 17–24; and reprinted in Induction, Physics and Ethics [see de Finetti (1968/70)], 18–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1968/70b, Contribution to the discussion of H. Vetter's paper ‘Logical Probability, Mathematical Statistics, and the Problem of Induction’, in Induction, Physics and Ethics [see de Finetti (1968/70)], 103–104 and 113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1970/71a, ‘The Probabilistic Explication of Information, Evidence, Surprise, Causality, Explanation, and Utility’, an invited lecture at the Waterloo Conference, April 1970, with appendix ‘Twenty-Seven Principles of Rationality’, in Foundations of Statistical Inference: Proc. Symp. on Foundations of Statistical Inference prepared under the auspices of the Réné Descartes Foundation and held at the Dept. of Statistics, Univ. of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, from March 31 to April 9, 1970 (ed. by V. P. Godambe and D. A. Sprott), Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Ltd., Toronto and Montreal, pp. 108–141 (with discussion).

  • Good, I. J.: 1970/71b, ‘Nonparametric Roughness Penalty for Probability Densities’, Nature, Physical Science 229, 29–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1970/71c, ‘The Evolving Explanation of a “Numerological Law”, Being an Invited ‘Rebuttal’ to Bradley Efron's paper ‘Does an Observed Sequence of Numbers Follow a Simple Rule? (Another Look at Bode's Law)’, J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 66, 559–562.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1970/73, ‘Information, Rewards, and Quasi-Utilities’, lecture invited by Jakob Marschak, Second World Congress of the Econometric Society, Cambridge England; revision in Science, Decision, and Value (ed. by J. J. Leach, R. Butts, and J. Pearce), D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1973, pp. 115–127; Abstract, Econometrica 46. 195–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1971a, ‘The Bayesian Influence’, mimeographed notes of lectures at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, p. 122.

  • Good, I. J.: 1971b, ‘46656 Varieties of Bayesians’, letter in The American Statistician 25, No. 5, 62–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J.: 1973, ‘The Bayesian Influence, or How to Sweep Subjectivism Under the Carpet’, in the conference on Contemporary Research in the Conceptual and Mathematical Foundations of Probability and Statistics and their Scientific Applications, University of Western Ontario, May 1973, to be published.

  • Good, I. J. and Card, W. I.: 1970/71, ‘The Diagnostic Process with Special Reference to Errors’, Methods of Information in Medicine 10, No. 3, 176–188.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J. and Gaskins, R. A.: 1971, ‘Non-Parametric Roughness Penalties for Probability Densities’, Biometrika 58, 255–277.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J. and Gaskins, R. A.: 1972, ‘Global Nonparametric Estimation of Probability Densities’, Virginia J. Sci. 23, 171–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J. and Mayer, L. S.: 1972, ‘On Surfaces of Constant Societal Loss in a Model of Social Choice’, J. Mathematical Sociology 2, 209–219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, I. J. and Toulmin, G. H.: 1968, ‘Coding Theorems and Weight of Evidence’, J. Inst. Math. Applics. 4, 94–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huzurbazar, V. S.: 1955, ‘On the Certainty of an Inductive Inference’, Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 51, 761–762.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffreys, H.: 1936, ‘Further Significance Tests’, Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 32, 416–445.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffreys, H.: 1939/61, Theory of Probability, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffreys, H.: 1946, ‘An Invariant Form for the Prior Probability in Estimation Problems’, Proc. Royal Society A 186, 453–461.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, William Ernest and Braithwaite, R. B.: 1932, Appendix to ‘Probability: Deductive and Inductive Problems’, Mind 41, 421–423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemeny, J. G. and Oppenheim, P.: 1952, ‘Degrees of Factual Support’, Philosophy of Science 19, 307–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keynes, J. M.: 1921, A Treatise on Probability, Macmillan, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kullback, S.: 1959, Information Theory and Statistics, Wiley, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemoine, Émile: 1902, Géométrographie, Paris.

  • Mandelbrot, B.: 1953, in Communication Theory (ed. by Willis Jackson), Butterworths, London, p. 486.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minsky, M. and O. G. Selfridge: 1961, ‘Learning in Random Nets’, in Information Theory: Fourth London Symposium (ed. by Colin Cherry), Butterworths, London, pp. 335–347.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosteller, F. and Wallace, D. L.: 1964, Inference and Disputed Authorship Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orwell, George: 1949, 1984, Harcourt, Brace and World.

  • Peirce, Charles Sanders: 1878, ‘The Probability and Induction’, Popular Science Monthly, reprinted in The World of Mathematics 2 (ed. by James R. Newman), Simon and Schuster, New York, 1956, pp. 1341–1354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perks, W.: 1947, ‘Some Observations on Inverse Probability Including a New Indifference Rule’, J. Inst. Actuaries 73, 285–312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pólya, G.: 1941, ‘Heuristic Reasoning and the Theory of Probability’, American Mathematical Monthly 48, 450–465.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poisson, S. D.: 1837, Recherches sur la probabilité des jugements, Paris.

  • Popper, K. R.: 1954, ‘Degree of Confirmation’, Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 5, 143–149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. R.: 1957, ‘Probability Magic or Knowledge out of Ignorance’, Dialectica 11, 354–357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. R.: 1959, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Hutchinson, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. R.: 1962, Conjectures and Refutations, Basic Books, New York and London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramsey, F. P.: 1926/31/50/64, ‘Truth and Probability’, a 1926 lecture published in The Foundations of Mathematics and other Logical Essays, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1931; The Humanities Press, New York, 1950. Reprinted in Studies in Subjective Probability (ed. by H. E. Kyburg and H. E. Smokler), Wiley, New York, 1963, pp. 63–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. A. B.: 1961, ‘Consistency in Statistical Inference and Decision’, J. Royal Statistical Society B 23, 1–37 (with discussion).

    Google Scholar 

  • Turing, A. M.: 1940, private communication.

  • Valéry, P. A.: 1921, ‘Eupalinos ou l'Architecte-Dialogue des morts’, La Nouvelle Revue Française, No. 90, 237–285; reprinted in Oeuvres de Paul Valéry, II, Guillimard, 1960, 79–147.

  • Wrinch, Dorothy and Jeffreys, Harold: 1921, ‘On Certain Fundamental Principles of Scientific Enquiry’, Philos. Mag. ser. 6 42, 369–390.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

An invited paper in the conference ‘Methodologies: Bayesian and Popperian’, held in the Department of Philosophy, The University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, November 8–10, 1973.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Good, I.J. Explicativity, corroboration, and the relative odds of hypotheses. Synthese 30, 39–73 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00485294

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00485294

Keywords

Navigation