9163
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If we only use induction to assess induction, it is empirically indefeasible, and hence a priori [Field,H]
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Full Idea:
If some inductive rule is basic for us, in the sense that we never assess it using any rules other than itself, then it must be one that we treat as empirically indefeasible (hence as fully a priori, given that it will surely have default status).
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From:
Hartry Field (Apriority as an Evaluative Notion [2000], 4)
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A reaction:
This follows on from Field's account of a priori knowledge. See Ideas 9160 and 9164. I think of induction as simply learning from experience, but if experience goes mad I will cease to trust it. (A rationalist view).
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15255
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Conjunctions explain nothing, and so do not give a reason for confidence in inductions [Harré/Madden]
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Full Idea:
'Going together' is irrelevant as an explanation, and that is precisely why it is useless as a reason for having confidence in inductive inferences.
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From:
Harré,R./Madden,E.H. (Causal Powers [1975], 4.I)
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A reaction:
I suspect that the deep underlying question is whether the actual world has modal features - that is, are dispositions, rather than mere categorical properties, a feature of the actual. Is this room full of possibilities? Yes, say I.
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15284
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Contraposition may be equivalent in truth, but not true in nature, because of irrelevant predicates [Harré/Madden]
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Full Idea:
The question about Hempel's Paradox is whether contraposition is not only equivalent in truth, but equivalent tout court. It forcibly inserts new predicates into a context of properties known to be connected by nature.
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From:
Harré,R./Madden,E.H. (Causal Powers [1975], 7.I)
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A reaction:
[compressed] This seems to capture quite nicely the intuition most people have (which makes it a 'paradox') that the equivalent predicate is irrelevant to the immediate enquiry. The paradox is good because it forces the present explanation.
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15285
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The items put forward by the contraposition belong within different natural clusters [Harré/Madden]
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Full Idea:
If empirical predicates are linked in clusters, contraposition of (black, raven) would carry one via such pairs as (shoe, white) into a different empirical cluster, or no cluster at all.
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From:
Harré,R./Madden,E.H. (Causal Powers [1975], 7.I)
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A reaction:
This is, of course, addressed to Hempel's Raven Paradox. Those paradoxes now strike me as relics of a time when Humean empiricism and logic were thought to be the best approaches to scientific theory. Harré and Madden pioneered a better view.
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