Best Explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation

ISBN-13: 9780198746904 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 288 str.

Kevin McCain; Ted Poston

Opis

Twenty philosophers offer new essays examining the form of reasoning known as inference to the best explanation - widely used in science and in our everyday lives, yet still controversial. Best Explanations represents the state of the art when it comes to understanding, criticizing, and defending this form of reasoning.

Recenzje

a highly valuable resource for researchers, especially those whose interests lie primarily within epistemology, who will find here many excellent contributions to debates about the nature and epistemic status of IBE. In particular, this volume will be essential reading for those interested in (i) how IBE can or should be formulated within a broadly-speaking Bayesian framework for non-deductive reasoning, (ii) whether IBE is a fundamental or derivative form of inference, and (iii) whether IBE is, or can be shown to be, a justified, reliable or rational form of inference.

O autorze

Kevin McCain is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research focuses on issues in epistemology and philosophy of science-particularly where these areas intersect. In addition to numerous journal articles, he has written two books: Evidentialism and Epistemic Justification (Routledge, 2014) and The Nature of Scientific Knowledge: An Explanatory Approach (Springer, 2016). Ted Poston is Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Alabama. He has written many articles in epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of religion. His first book Reason and Explanation (Palgrave-Macmillan) offers a contemporary defense of explanatory coherentism. His second book, written with Adam Carter, A Critical Introduction to Knowledge-How (Bloomsbury) presents a sustained argument that knowledge-how is a unique grasp of non-propositional reality.