We are currently witnessing a revival in formal approaches to epistemology. Researchers from several fields—philosophy, artificial intelligence, statistics, economics, and other branches of applied logic & mathematics—seem to be, in growing numbers, taking up core questions in epistemology. This interest in formal epistemology from researchers in various fields appears to be more than a passing...

This paper introduces some preliminary formalizations of the approximate entities of [McCarthy, 2000]. Approximate objects, predicates, and theories are considered necessary for human-level AI, and we believe they enable very powerful modes of reasoning (which admittedly are not always sound). Approximation is known as vagueness in philosophical circles and is often deplored as a defective aspe...

The realization in the last century that observed human behavior often deviates from the predictions of traditional axiomatic theories of rationality (henceforth “TATs”), e.g. [6],[8], has led to a revival of the philosophical problem of developing a credible philosophical theory of rationality. In particular, the concept of ecological rationality (“ECO”) has been developed as a competitor to T...

Abstract What is dialectic and what it for, in Aristotle? Aristotle’s answer Topics 1.2 seems surprisingly lacking unity. He to imply that insofar as an expertise ( τέχνη ), a disposition three (possibly four) different kinds of productive achievement. Insofar method, one whose use seemingly subject multiple, differing standards evaluation. The goal the paper resist this problematic “multi-tool...

Thought experiments, modal judgment, counterfactual reasoning. All of these activities, so central to philosophical inquiry, involve the ‘propositional imagination’, the capacity we exploit when we imagine that there is an evil genius, that everyone is color-blind, or that Holmes had a bad habit. Philosophy would be unrecognizable if we extracted all the parts that depend on the imagination. So...

T hanks very much, Manuel! It’s a great pleasure to be here! We’re in a state of euphoria now in the computer business because things are going so well: the Web, e-commerce. It’s all paying for our salaries, and it’s a nice moment to be around, when things are going so well. But I’d like to make the outrageous claim, that has a little bit of truth, that actually all of this that’s happening now...

This paper explains some of the reasoning behind “Can a Good Philosophical Contribution Be Made Just by Asking Question?,” which consists solely in its title and is published same issue journal as present paper. The method for explaining that making available lightly edited version letter authors sent to editors when submitting title-only permitted publication on condition also separately publi...

Strictly speaking,modal logic studies reasoning that involves theuseof the expressions ‘necessarily’ and ‘possibly’. The main idea is to introduce the symbols∫ (necessarily) and∂ (possibly) to a system of logic so that it is able todistinguish threedifferentmodesof assertion:∫A(Aisnecessary), A (A is true), and ∂A (A is possible). Introducing these symbols (or operators) would seem to be essent...

Despite the importance of exploratory data analysis (EDA) in statistics and science, few people have worked on its philosophical foundations. In psychology, the present author (Haig, 2012; Behrens et al., 2013) have commented on philosophical aspects of EDA. They hold contrasting views about the appropriateness of abductive reasoning as a core component of the philosophy of EDA. Behrens and his...