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Logic of Reliable Inquiry. Logic and Computation in Philosophy, The

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This book considers the question of the reliability of scientific methods. One method of inquiry can be said to be more reliable than another if it eventually arrives at the truth in more possible circumstances than the other method can. Kelly begins with a discussion of the philosophical significance of reliability, examines the reliability of computable methods, provides a general, topological perspective on  Read more...

Abstract: This book considers the question of the reliability of scientific methods. One method of inquiry can be said to be more reliable than another if it eventually arrives at the truth in more possible circumstances than the other method can. Kelly begins with a discussion of the philosophical significance of reliability, examines the reliability of computable methods, provides a general, topological perspective on reliable inference by ""ideal"" agents, and investigates the possibility of reliable enquiry in the face of theory-laden evidence and incommensurability. The text is extensively and amus

Author(s): Kelly, Kevin T
Series: Logic and computation in philosophy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1996

Language: English
Pages: 449
City: New York
Tags: Logic, Symbolic and mathematical.

Content: Cover --
Preface --
Contents --
1. Introduction --
2. Reliable Inquiry --
1. Background Assumptions --
2. Methods and Data Streams --
3. Data Protocols --
4. Truth and Global Underdetermination --
5. The Philosophy of Global Underdetermination --
6. The Philosophy of Local Underdetermination --
7. Scientific Realism, Probability, and Subjunctives --
8. The Logic of Reliable Inquiry --
3. The Demons of Passive Observation --
1. Introduction --
2. Decidability with a Deadline --
3. Decidability, Verifiability, and Refutability with Certainty --
4. Verification, Refutation, and Decision in the Limit --
5. Decision with n Mind Changes --
6. Gradual Verification, Refutation, and Decision --
7. Optimal Background Assumptions --
8. Exercises --
4. Topology and Ideal Hypothesis Assessment --
1. Introduction --
2. Basic Topological Concepts --
3. The Baire Space --
4. Restricted Topological Spaces --
5. A Characterization of Bounded Sample Decidability --
6. Characterizations of Certain Assessment --
7. Characterizations of Limiting Assessment --
8. Efficient Data Use --
9. A Characterization of n-Mind-Change Decidability --
10. A Demon-Oriented Characterization of n-Mind-Change Decidability --
11. Characterizations of Gradual Assessment --
12. The Levels of Underdetermination --
13. Exercises --
5. Reducibility and the Game of Science --
1. Introduction --
2. Ideal Inductive Methods as Continuous Operators on the Baire Space --
3. Assessment as Reduction --
4. Ideal Transcendental Deductions as Cnt-Completeness Theorems --
5. Inductive Demons as Continuous Counterreductions --
6. Science as a Limiting Game --
7. Exercises --
6. The Demons of Computability --
1. Introduction --
2. Church Meets Hume --
3. Programs as Reliable Methods --
4. The Arithmetical Hierarchy --
5. Uncomputability and Diagonalization --
6. The Demons of Uncomputability --
7. Some Disanalogies --
8. Exercises --
7. Computers in Search of the Truth --
1. Ideal Epistemology and Computability --
2. Computation as Internalized Inductive Inquiry --
3. The Arithmetical Hierarchy over the Baire Space --
4. Universal Relations and Hierarchy Theorems --
5. Characterization Theorems --
6. Data-Minimal Computable Methods --
7. The Empirical Irony of Cognitive Science --
8. The Computable Assessment of Uncomputable Theories --
9. Ideal Norms and Computational Disasters --
10. Computable Inquiry --
11. Exercises --
8. So Much Time, Such Little Brains --
1. Introduction --
2. Finite State Automata --
3. Regular Sets --
4. Scientific Automata --
5. Scientific Automata and Certainty --
6. Scientific Automata in the Limit --
7. Limiting Regular Expression --
8.?-Expression --
9. The Inductive Power of Indeterminism --
10. Primitive Recursion --
11. The Empirical Irony of Cognitive Science Revisited --
12. Exercises --
9. The Logic of Ideal Discovery --
1. Introduction --
2. Basic Definitions --
3. Assessment as Discovery --
4. Conjectures and Refutations --
5. A Complete Architecture for Discovery --
6. Data-Minimal Limiting Discovery --
7. Discove.