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Single Idea 12770

[filed under theme 2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 6. Coherence ]

Full Idea

The specter that faces us is that we may end up having explained all that is dreamt of in our philosophies by intricately crafted postulates that are false.

Gist of Idea

We may end up with a huge theory of carefully constructed falsehoods

Source

Bas C. van Fraassen (The Empirical Stance [2002], 1.5)

Book Ref

Fraassen,Bas van: 'The Empirical Stance' [Yale 2002], p.16

A Reaction

This is more persuasive that Idea 12769. People who cannot bear to live with a total absence of explanation (with Keats's 'negative capability') are most in danger from this threat.

Related Idea

Idea 12769 Inference to best explanation contains all sorts of hidden values [Fraassen]

The 24 ideas with the same theme [principles of mutual support between propositions]:

2082 A rational account is essentially a weaving together of things with names [Plato]
1672 Maybe everything could be demonstrated, if demonstration can be reciprocal or circular [Aristotle]
17638 If one proposition is deduced from another, they are more certain together than alone [Russell]
2764 Full coherence might involve consistency and mutual entailment of all propositions [Blanshard, by Dancy,J]
17070 Coherence is consilience, simplicity, analogy, and fitting into a web of belief [Smart]
17072 We need comprehensiveness, as well as self-coherence [Smart]
12596 Reasoning aims at increasing explanatory coherence [Harman]
12599 Reason conservatively: stick to your beliefs, and prefer reasoning that preserves most of them [Harman]
6954 A coherent conceptual scheme contains best explanations of most of your beliefs [Harman]
9784 A false proposition isn't truer because it is part of a coherent system [Cartwright,R]
4262 If the only aim was consistent beliefs then new evidence and experiments would be irrelevant [Goldman]
12770 We may end up with a huge theory of carefully constructed falsehoods [Fraassen]
8877 We can't attain a coherent system by lopping off any beliefs that won't fit [Sosa]
8833 Why should we prefer coherent beliefs? [Klein,P]
8797 The negation of all my beliefs about my current headache would be fully coherent [Sosa]
3700 Coherence can't be validated by appeal to coherence [Bonjour]
8893 For any given area, there seem to be a huge number of possible coherent systems of beliefs [Bonjour]
10237 Coherence is a primitive, intuitive notion, not reduced to something formal [Shapiro]
17596 Coherence problems have positive and negative restraints; solutions maximise constraint satisfaction [Thagard]
17597 Coherence is explanatory, deductive, conceptual, analogical, perceptual, and deliberative [Thagard]
17598 Explanatory coherence needs symmetry,explanation,analogy,data priority, contradiction,competition,acceptance [Thagard]
12801 Coherentists seek relations among beliefs that are simple, conservative and explanatory [Foley]
8616 How can multiple statements, none of which is tenable, conjoin to yield a tenable conclusion? [Elgin]
8617 Statements that are consistent, cotenable and supportive are roughly true [Elgin]