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Single Idea 10993

[filed under theme 10. Modality / B. Possibility / 8. Conditionals / d. Non-truthfunction conditionals ]

Full Idea

Ramsey's Test for conditionals is that a conditional should be believed if a belief in its antecedent would commit one to believing its consequent.

Gist of Idea

Ramsey's Test: believe the consequent if you believe the antecedent

Source

report of Frank P. Ramsey (Law and Causality [1928]) by Stephen Read - Thinking About Logic Ch.3

Book Ref

Read,Stephen: 'Thinking About Logic' [OUP 1995], p.74

A Reaction

A rather pragmatic approach to conditionals

The 23 ideas from Frank P. Ramsey

3750 "It is true that x" means no more than x [Ramsey]
18818 Sentence meaning is given by the actions to which it would lead [Ramsey]
13427 Either 'a = b' vacuously names the same thing, or absurdly names different things [Ramsey]
13426 Formalists neglect content, but the logicists have focused on generalizations, and neglected form [Ramsey]
13425 Formalism is hopeless, because it focuses on propositions and ignores concepts [Ramsey]
13428 Reducibility: to every non-elementary function there is an equivalent elementary function [Ramsey]
13430 Infinity: there is an infinity of distinguishable individuals [Ramsey]
13334 Contradictions are either purely logical or mathematical, or they involved thought and language [Ramsey]
22328 I just confront the evidence, and let it act on me [Ramsey]
22325 A belief is knowledge if it is true, certain and obtained by a reliable process [Ramsey]
19724 Belief is knowledge if it is true, certain, and obtained by a reliable process [Ramsey]
6894 Mental terms can be replaced in a sentence by a variable and an existential quantifier [Ramsey]
10993 Ramsey's Test: believe the consequent if you believe the antecedent [Ramsey, by Read]
9418 All knowledge needs systematizing, and the axioms would be the laws of nature [Ramsey]
9420 Causal laws result from the simplest axioms of a complete deductive system [Ramsey]
14279 Asking 'If p, will q?' when p is uncertain, then first add p hypothetically to your knowledge [Ramsey]
19143 Ramsey gave axioms for an uncertain agent to decide their preferences [Ramsey, by Davidson]
13766 'If' is the same as 'given that', so the degrees of belief should conform to probability theory [Ramsey, by Ramsey]
8494 Obviously 'Socrates is wise' and 'Socrates has wisdom' express the same fact [Ramsey]
8495 The distinction between particulars and universals is a mistake made because of language [Ramsey]
8493 We could make universals collections of particulars, or particulars collections of their qualities [Ramsey]
6409 The 'simple theory of types' distinguishes levels among properties [Ramsey, by Grayling]
3212 Beliefs are maps by which we steer [Ramsey]