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Single Idea 16832

[filed under theme 14. Science / C. Induction / 5. Paradoxes of Induction / b. Raven paradox ]

Full Idea

We are considering that there is something in ravens, a gene perhaps, that makes them black, and this cause is part of the essence of ravens. Birds lacking this cause could not interbreed with ravens.

Gist of Idea

If something in ravens makes them black, it may be essential (definitive of ravens)

Source

Peter Lipton (Inference to the Best Explanation (2nd) [2004], 05 'Unsuitable')

Book Ref

Lipton,Peter: 'Inference to the Best Explanation (2nd ed)' [Routledge 2004], p.97

A Reaction

At last, the essentialist approach to induction! Of course, it is tricky to decide a priori whether there could be albino ravens. It only takes one white (interbreeding) raven to ruin a nice essentialist story. Individuals matter.

Related Idea

Idea 15287 The possibility that all ravens are black is a law depends on a mechanism producing the blackness [Harré/Madden]

The 16 ideas with the same theme [problem irrelevant evidence for a general law]:

19000 Read 'all ravens are black' as about ravens, not as about an implication [Belnap]
17674 The raven paradox has three disjuncts, confirmed by confirming any one of them [Armstrong]
15889 It is because ravens are birds that their species and their colour might be connected [Harré]
15890 Non-black non-ravens just aren't part of the presuppositions of 'all ravens are black' [Harré]
15284 Contraposition may be equivalent in truth, but not true in nature, because of irrelevant predicates [Harré/Madden]
15285 The items put forward by the contraposition belong within different natural clusters [Harré/Madden]
15287 The possibility that all ravens are black is a law depends on a mechanism producing the blackness [Harré/Madden]
16832 If something in ravens makes them black, it may be essential (definitive of ravens) [Lipton]
16836 My shoes are not white because they lack some black essence of ravens [Lipton]
16831 A theory may explain the blackness of a raven, but say nothing about the whiteness of shoes [Lipton]
16833 We can't turn non-black non-ravens into ravens, to test the theory [Lipton]
16834 To pick a suitable contrast to ravens, we need a hypothesis about their genes [Lipton]
18993 If sentences point to different evidence, they must have different subject-matter [Yablo]
19003 Most people say nonblack nonravens do confirm 'all ravens are black', but only a tiny bit [Yablo]
4782 'All x are y' is equivalent to 'all non-y are non-x', so observing paper is white confirms 'ravens are black' [Mautner, by PG]
7006 Observing irrelevant items supports both 'all x are y' and 'all x are non-y', revealing its absurdity [Schofield,J]