Questions tagged [inference]
25 questions
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How can we overcome the challenge of the anti statistical philosopher?
Conventional statistical inference has been strongly challenged by the anti statistical philosopher who uses the following example:
Imagine a man. Imagine that every time a man opens his front door and steps outside a red 1965 Corvette with the…
Frank McCain
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What is the relation between abductive reasoning and fallacy?
According to WP's article on abductive reasoning:
[A]bduction is formally equivalent to the logical fallacy of affirming the consequent [citation needed] because of multiple possible explanations for b.
Is abductive reasoning necessarily a logical…
quanity
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Which of common rules of inference are rejected on some philosophical grounds?
My question is: is there a mathematical or philosophical basis for rejecting any of the following rules of inference? If yes, then what is the argument for rejecting any of them? I am asking this question because I would like to know if there is any…
rfloc
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Are there any examples of two theories that accurately describe a phenomenon where the more complex one was found to be correct?
I was reading this answer on how Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference can be used to posit the more correct theory amongst a set that provide the expected "answer", where the shorter, or less complex, of the set has the highest likelyhood of…
joshperry
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Axioms/premises vs. rules of inference
Deductive philosophical arguments are often presented semi-formally as a list of premises and the conclusion (and sometimes combinations of such sub-arguments). What is virtually never stated are the rules inference, probably because they're assumed…
viuser
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Examples of, or counterexamples to, the concept of erotetic inference?
Suppose that the generality-particularity ordering is the comprehensive ordering on inference. Compare:
What is the first integer after 2?
What is the first prime integer after 2?
(2) would seem more particular than (1). However, I would be…
Kristian Berry
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Deductively valid arguments and situations
In book 'Logic: A Very Short Introduction', Graham Priest has quote about deductively valid arguments.
Here is one problem. Assuming that the account is correct, to know
that an inference is deductively valid is to know that there are no
situations…
danBeginner
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Are inferences in everyday life often combinations of inductive, deductive and other possible methods of inference?
Logicians have distilled methods of inference into some fundamental kinds like deduction and induction. In everyday conversation, though, we are constantly making inferences both inductively and deductively. An example would be:
Premise 1: Flipkart…
2
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2 answers
Incorrect statement in Suppes' Introduction to Logic
Chapter 2 of Suppes' develops the notion of sentential inference and how to construct rules of inference. However, there is one part in his development that seems incorrect no matter how I look at it.
The chapter starts with asserting that every…
hLance
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Would the imaginary unit be the truth-value of sentences formed using √?
Section 4.3 of "Sentence Connectives in Formal Logic" discusses a concept of demi-negation or what is (for the sake of the text) resolved to a concept of "the square root of negation" (note that "#" is being used as the demi-negation operator):
...…
Kristian Berry
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What is a rule of inductive inference?
What is a rule of inductive inference? I'm not looking for any examples, but for definitions - what makes the logical form of an inductive argument a rule of inductive inference?
Turtur
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Can inferences be objective?
Is it correct to say that inferences are subjective at all times because they are always made by individual minds and depend on a range of factors influencing those particular minds?
Or can inferences be somehow objective?
The originating context of…
Greendrake
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What is the correct consideration to give a hypothesis that a bacterium or a blade of grass has consciousness? Or the Sun?
In his 2021 book "Being You", Anil Seth writes:
"There is something it is like to be me, something it is
like to be you, and probably something it is like to be a sheep, or a
dolphin. ... But there is almost certainly nothing it is like to be a…
Daniel Asimov
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The structure of the epistemic regress
I just read this essay on coherentism, and it resonated with a question I have about reconciling foundationalism, coherentism, and infinitism. The gist of the essay is that there are graph-theoretic structures that are isomorphic to epistemic…
Kristian Berry
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According to logic and argumentation theory, how does one build strong arguments?
I'm very new to philosophy and the formal study of argumentation. In every essay so far, I've argued against a thesis. I attack the validity or strength of premises and the soundness or strength of its inferences.
However- and I know this seems…
haz
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