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Full Idea
A set of unrelated beliefs seems less coherent than a tightly organized conceptual scheme that contains explanatory principles that make sense of most of your beliefs; this is why inference to the best explanation is an attractive pattern of inference.
Gist of Idea
A coherent conceptual scheme contains best explanations of most of your beliefs
Source
Gilbert Harman (Rationality [1995], 1.5.2)
Book Ref
Harman,Gilbert: 'Reasoning Meaning and Mind' [OUP 1999], p.33
A Reaction
I find this a very appealing proposal. The central aim of rational thought seems to me to be best explanation, and I increasingly think that most of my beliefs rest on their apparent coherence, rather than their foundations.
| 6950 | You can be rational with undetected or minor inconsistencies [Harman] |
| 6951 | Ordinary rationality is conservative, starting from where your beliefs currently are [Harman] |
| 6952 | Induction is 'defeasible', since additional information can invalidate it [Harman] |
| 6953 | All reasoning is inductive, and deduction only concerns implication [Harman] |
| 6954 | A coherent conceptual scheme contains best explanations of most of your beliefs [Harman] |
| 6955 | Enumerative induction is inference to the best explanation [Harman] |