Single Idea 16828

[catalogued under 14. Science / D. Explanation / 3. Best Explanation / a. Best explanation]

Full Idea

The slogan 'Inference to the Best Explanation' may bring to mind an excessively passive picture of scientific enquiry, …but there is the feedback between hypothesis formation and data acquisition that characterises actual enquiry.

Gist of Idea

IBE is not passive treatment of data, but involves feedback between theory and data search

Source

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

Book Reference

Lipton,Peter: 'Inference to the Best Explanation (2nd ed)' [Routledge 2004], p.83


A Reaction

Perhaps it should be renamed 'Search for the Best Explanation'.