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An Aalysis of Epistemological Justification of Inference to the Best Explanation

Etemadoleslami Bakhtiari, Mohammad Mahdi | 2016

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 48478 (42)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Philosophy of Science
  6. Advisor(s): Mousavi Karimi, Mirsaeid; Azadegan, Ebrahim
  7. Abstract:
  8. By “Analysis of Epistemological Justification of Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE)” I mean to examine whether the IBE argument can increase the probability of the truth of belief to the outcome of the argument or not. According to the Strong Version of IBE, this increase shows that the best explanation is more likely to be true, whereas according to the Weak Version the best explanation is more probable than its available rivals. The most influential arguments against these positions are: (1) The bad lot objection (BLO) according to which the idea that the best available explanations will be more likely to be true, presupposes that the truth is already more likely to be found among them. But there is no reason to believe so. (2) Hungerford’s objection (HO) which maintains that explanatory virtues, as the criteria for selecting the best explanation, are too subjective to block the way for selecting different explanations. (3) Voltaire’s objection (VO) which questions whether the explanatory virtues lead to selecting the explanatory hypothesis which are more probably true or at least more probable than its rivals. The aim of this thesis is to examine these challenges. Chapter 1 deals with different approaches to IBE. Considering that the discussion is restricted to the strong and the weak versions of IBE, it will be shown that while BLO is a challenge against the strong version, HO and VO are challenges against both versions. BLO is the topic of Chapter 2. It is argued that IBE is immune from BLO. HO will be examined in detail in Chapter 3. Scrutinizing the most prominent explanatory virtues, it is shown that some of them are reduced to the others. This shows that the extent that HO covers is restricted considerably. In Chapter 4, VO will be discussed. It is argued that neither the strong nor the weak versions of IBE can escape VO. Thus, although BLO misses the mark, and HO is limited, since VO stands unrefuted, I conclude that the epistemological justification of IBE is under threat
  9. Keywords:
  10. Inference to the Best Explanation ; Epistemological Problem ; Justification ; Bad Lot Objection (BLO) ; Voltaire's Objection (Vo) ; Hungerford's (HO)

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