Evaluating Inferences: the Nature and Role of Warrants

Authors

  • Robert C. Pinto University of Windsor

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v26i3.455

Keywords:

warrant, inference rule, material inference, evidence proportionalism, entitlement preserving inference, inferential practice, reliability, David Hitchcock, Stephen Toulmin

Abstract

Following David Hitchcock and Stephen Toulmin, this paper takes warrants to be material inference rules. It offers an account of the form such rules should take that is designed (a) to implement the idea that an argument/inference is valid only if it is entitlement preserving and (b) to support a qualitative version of evidence proportionalism. It attempts to capture what gives warrants their normative force by elaborating a concept of reliability tailored to its account of the form such rules should take.

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Issue

Vol. 26 No. 3 (2006)

Section

Articles

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