Hume's problem
Hume's problem: induction and the justification of belief Colin Howson
Publisher: Oxford : Clarendon Press ; 2000.
ISBN: 0198250371
DDC: 161
LCC: BC91
Edition: (alk. paper)
Summary:
"Colin Howson offers a solution to one of the central, unsolved
problems of Western philosophy, the problem of induction. In the
mid-eighteenth century David Hume argued that successful prediction
tells us nothing about the truth of the predicting theory. No matter
how many experimental tests a hypothesis passes, nothing can be
legitimately inferred about its truth or probable truth.".
"But physical theory routinely predicts the values of observable
magnitudes to many places of decimals and within very small ranges of
error. The chance of this sort of predictive success without a true
theory seems so remote that the possibility should be dismissed. This
suggests that Hume's argument must be wrong; but there is still no
consensus on where exactly the flaw in the argument lies.
Howson argues that there is no flaw, and examines the implications of
this disturbing conclusion for the relation between science and its
empirical base."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-255) and index.
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