Explanatory power and explanatory appeal of theories
نویسندگان
چکیده
منابع مشابه
Parsimony and explanatory power
Parsimony can be related to explanatory power, either by noting that each additional requirement for a separate origin of a feature reduces the number of observed similarities that can be explained as inheritance from a common ancestor; or else by applying Popper s formula for explanatory power together with the fact that parsimony yields maximum likelihood trees under No Common Mechanism (NCM)...
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The desire to minimize the number of individual new entities postulated is often referred to as quantitative parsimony. Its influence on the default hypotheses formulated by scientists seems undeniable. I argue that there is a wide class of cases for which the preference for quantitatively parsimonious hypotheses is demonstrably rational. The justification, in a nutshell, is that such hypothese...
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than the sorts of grammars associated with generative grammar. It is not clear, in particular, that speakers make any generalizations across phrasal categories and hence it is not clear that there is any need for notions like ‘head’, ‘complement’, ‘adjunct’, or ‘specifier’. Again, the claim of this Descriptive theories and explanatory theories 221 paper is that the sort of grammars that use bas...
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In this paper, I look at the argument for Dispositional Essentialism (DE) that has been put forward by A. Bird in his recent book Nature’s Metaphysics. Bird’s overall argument comes in two parts, one negative and one positive, which together are to establish DE as the best contender for a theory of properties and laws. I argue that, even if all their particular steps go through, both parts of t...
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People hold beliefs that vary not only in their perceived truth, but also in their value to the believer— their meaning, relevance, and importance. We argue that a belief’s value is determined, at least in part, by its explanatory power. Highly valuable beliefs are those that can uniquely explain and organize a diverse set of observations. Less valuable beliefs, in contrast, are those that can ...
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ژورنال
عنوان ژورنال: Synthese
سال: 1972
ISSN: 0039-7857,1573-0964
DOI: 10.1007/bf00413651