On the pragmatic and epistemic virtues of inference to the best explanation

Synthese 199 (5-6):12407-12438 (2021)
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Abstract

In a series of papers over the past twenty years, and in a new book, Igor Douven has argued that Bayesians are too quick to reject versions of inference to the best explanation that cannot be accommodated within their framework. In this paper, I survey their worries and attempt to answer them using a series of pragmatic and purely epistemic arguments that I take to show that Bayes’ Rule really is the only rational way to respond to your evidence.

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Author's Profile

Richard Pettigrew
University of Bristol

References found in this work

The Foundations of Statistics.Leonard J. Savage - 1954 - Wiley Publications in Statistics.
Laws and symmetry.Bas C. Van Fraassen - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Accuracy and the Laws of Credence.Richard Pettigrew - 2016 - New York, NY.: Oxford University Press UK.
Inference to the Best Explanation.Peter Lipton - 1991 - London and New York: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.
Risk and Rationality.Lara Buchak - 2013 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.

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