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Single Idea 19003

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

Full Idea

The standard response to the raven paradox is to say that a nonblack nonraven does confirm that all ravens are black. But it confirms it just the teeniest little bit - not as much as a black raven does.

Gist of Idea

Most people say nonblack nonravens do confirm 'all ravens are black', but only a tiny bit

Source

Stephen Yablo (Aboutness [2014], 06.5)

Book Ref

Yablo,Stephen: 'Aboutness' [Princeton 2014], p.105

A Reaction

It depends on the proportion between the relevant items. How do you confirm 'all the large animals in this zoo are mammals'? Check for size every animal which is obviously not a mammal?

The 14 ideas from 'Aboutness'

18993 If sentences point to different evidence, they must have different subject-matter [Yablo]
18992 Sentence-meaning is the truth-conditions - plus factors responsible for them [Yablo]
18994 The content of an assertion can be quite different from compositional content [Yablo]
18996 A statement S is 'partly true' if it has some wholly true parts [Yablo]
18997 Truth-conditions as subject-matter has problems of relevance, short cut, and reversal [Yablo]
18999 y is only a proper part of x if there is a z which 'makes up the difference' between them [Yablo]
18998 Parthood lacks the restriction of kind which most relations have [Yablo]
19001 'Pegasus doesn't exist' is false without Pegasus, yet the absence of Pegasus is its truthmaker [Yablo]
19002 A nominalist can assert statements about mathematical objects, as being partly true [Yablo]
19003 Most people say nonblack nonravens do confirm 'all ravens are black', but only a tiny bit [Yablo]
19004 Gettier says you don't know if you are confused about how it is true [Yablo]
19005 Not-A is too strong to just erase an improper assertion, because it actually reverses A [Yablo]
19006 An 'enthymeme' is an argument with an indispensable unstated assumption [Yablo]
19007 A theory need not be true to be good; it should just be true about its physical aspects [Yablo]