Full Idea
Among the inferential virtues commonly cited are mechanism, precision, scope, simplicity, fertility or fruitfulness, and fit with background beliefs.
Gist of Idea
Good inference has mechanism, precision, scope, simplicity, fertility and background fit
Source
Peter Lipton (Inference to the Best Explanation (2nd) [2004], 08 'the guiding')
Book Reference
Lipton,Peter: 'Inference to the Best Explanation (2nd ed)' [Routledge 2004], p.122
A Reaction
[He cites Hempel, Kuhn, Quine, and Newton-Smith] I take the over-arching term 'coherence' to cover much of this, though a bolder hypothesis offers more than mere coherence.