Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-sv6ng Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-16T19:27:59.159Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Discussion: Confirmation, Paradox, and Logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Abstract

Paul Horwich has formulated a paradox which he believes to be even more virulent than the related Hempel paradox. I show that Horwich's paradox, as originally formulated, has a purely logical solution, hence that it has no bearing on the theory of confirmation. On the other hand, it illuminates some undesirable traits of classical predicate logic. A revised formulation of the paradox is then dealt with in a way that implies a modest revision of Nicod's criterion.

Type
Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Burge, T. (1974), “Truth and Singular Terms”, Noûs 8: 309324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hempel, C. G. (1937), “La Probleme de la Vérité”, Theoria 3: 306346.Google Scholar
Hempel, C. G. (1945), “Studies in the Logic of Confirmation”, Mind 54: 126 and 97–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hempel, C. G. (1965), Aspects of Scientific Explanation. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Horwich, P. (1978), “A Peculiar Consequence of Nicod's Criterion”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 29: 262263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horwich, P. (1982), Probability and Evidence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hosiasson-Lindenbaum, J. (1940), “On Confirmation”, Journal of Symbolic Logic 5: 133148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, G. E., and Cresswell, M. J. (1968), An Introduction to Modal Logic. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Lambert, K. (1981), “On the Philosophical Foundations of Free Logic”, Inquiry 24: 147203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marras, A. (1978), “Renouncing Existential Presuppositions”, Logique et Analyse 21: 355363.Google Scholar
Swinburne, R. G. (1971), “The Paradoxes of Confirmation—A Survey”, American Philosophical Quarterly 8: 318330.Google Scholar
Whitehead, A. N., and Russell, B. (1927), Principia Mathematica, Vol. 1, 2nd. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar