Questions tagged [inference]
The inference tag has no usage guidance.
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Do philosophers tend to overthink?
As an example, an enormous amount of effort seems to go into thinking about solipsism. In my view, and as an example, solipsism is easily eliminated by reasonable inference. Reasonable inference is a ...
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Abduction, deduction and induction in medical diagnosis and intervention
(Apologies if my views on logical inference are overly simplistic -- I'm a radiologist by profession, very far from a philosophy major. My goal is to understand what medical decisions are and where ...
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The application of logic to knowledge seems problematic
I was reading Dretske's text on 'Is knowledge closed under known entailment?' and I saw him using the material conditional while claiming entailment. But, in my head these two seem different. Since ...
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Are all coherent inferences deductive, inductive or abductive?
Are all coherent inferences deductive, inductive or abductive? If I justify a belief (to some degree) to myself, and it is not the best explanation, I am not deducing it from any premise, and it is ...
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Does meaning begin with what can usefully be inferred?
There's linguistic meaning, and then there's meaning in the sense of purpose. I want to talk about a kind of non-linguistic, non-purposeful meaning. Let me give a few examples.
You see that the lower ...
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Is religious authority justified?
Is religious authority justified?
I mean religious broadly thought, as something that may be a mystic non-inferential claim (and I'm especially interesting in these).
An inference is the process of ...
user67675
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Are there any examples of two theories that accurately describe a phenomenon where the more complex one was found to be correct?
I was reading this answer on how Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference can be used to posit the more correct theory amongst a set that provide the expected "answer", where the shorter, ...
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Would the imaginary unit be the truth-value of sentences formed using √𝐧𝐨𝐭?
Section 4.3 of "Sentence Connectives in Formal Logic" discusses a concept of demi-negation or what is (for the sake of the text) resolved to a concept of "the square root of negation&...
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What is a rule of inductive inference?
What is a rule of inductive inference? I'm not looking for any examples, but for definitions - what makes the logical form of an inductive argument a rule of inductive inference?
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Inference as tentative deduction
I've heard people make confident assertions about the categorical distinction between inference and deduction, but I'm not convinced.
I'm curious to hear rebuttals to the assertion that "...
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Axioms/premises vs. rules of inference
Deductive philosophical arguments are often presented semi-formally as a list of premises and the conclusion (and sometimes combinations of such sub-arguments). What is virtually never stated are the ...
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Why are the laws of the universe so perfect and consistent?
First of all, for the premise of this question, let's disregard quantum mechanics and relativity (whose existence is another big question ─ why did either of these very complicated sets of physical ...
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Can inferences be objective?
Is it correct to say that inferences are subjective at all times because they are always made by individual minds and depend on a range of factors influencing those particular minds?
Or can inferences ...
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The logic of analytic inferences
Consider the following argument:
P1: A is a father.
Therefore: A is a parent.
The above inference is analytic and valid: it is impossible that someone is a father without also being a parent. ...
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Does conjoining two questions count as an "erotetic inference"? [closed]
For example:
Why is an eagle like a microscope?
Who doesn't go here?
"Therefore," why is an eagle like a microscope and who doesn't go here?
Part of why I'm unsure about this being an &...
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Examples of, or counterexamples to, the concept of erotetic inference?
Suppose that the generality-particularity ordering is the comprehensive ordering on inference. Compare:
What is the first integer after 2?
What is the first prime integer after 2?
(2) would seem ...
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What is the relation between abductive reasoning and fallacy?
According to WP's article on abductive reasoning:
[A]bduction is formally equivalent to the logical fallacy of affirming the consequent [citation needed] because of multiple possible explanations for ...
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What is the correct consideration to give a hypothesis that a bacterium or a blade of grass has consciousness? Or the Sun?
In his 2021 book "Being You", Anil Seth writes:
"There is something it is like to be me, something it is
like to be you, and probably something it is like to be a sheep, or a
dolphin. .....
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Can someone explain why this immediate inference is valid?
everyone.
Thank you very much in advance for any help you can give me with this issue.
I'm enrolled in an Introduction to Logic course, and we're currently working on Categorical Propositions. I've ...
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The structure of the epistemic regress
I just read this essay on coherentism, and it resonated with a question I have about reconciling foundationalism, coherentism, and infinitism. The gist of the essay is that there are graph-theoretic ...
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Deductively valid arguments and situations
In book 'Logic: A Very Short Introduction', Graham Priest has quote about deductively valid arguments.
Here is one problem. Assuming that the account is correct, to know
that an inference is ...
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According to logic and argumentation theory, how does one build strong arguments?
I'm very new to philosophy and the formal study of argumentation. In every essay so far, I've argued against a thesis. I attack the validity or strength of premises and the soundness or strength of ...
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Are inferences in everyday life often combinations of inductive, deductive and other possible methods of inference?
Logicians have distilled methods of inference into some fundamental kinds like deduction and induction. In everyday conversation, though, we are constantly making inferences both inductively and ...
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Does the Multiverse Undermine argumente based on statistical inference? [duplicate]
In the last fifty years, eminent physicists have discovered that the physical parameters of our universe are fine tuned, which means that a slight change in these parameters would render life as we ...
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How can we overcome the challenge of the anti statistical philosopher?
Conventional statistical inference has been strongly challenged by the anti statistical philosopher who uses the following example:
Imagine a man. Imagine that every time a man opens his front door ...
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What is the difference between statement and premise?
What are the differences between a Statement and a Premise?
I wonder if they are same or not? Any counterexample where a statement is not a premise?
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Is a model of inference needed for reasoning?
In logic we can't make any deductions without rules of inference, predicates, and formulas. In probability/statistic we can't make any inferences without assuming some probabilistic model which might ...
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Which of common rules of inference are rejected on some philosophical grounds?
My question is: is there a mathematical or philosophical basis for rejecting any of the following rules of inference? If yes, then what is the argument for rejecting any of them? I am asking this ...
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Reasoning for deductive inference?
I got a quiz today in my classroom. I need to say True or False to the following:
Deductive inferences are typically based on unfounded assumptions.
For the valid deductive inference, the conclusion ...
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Incorrect statement in Suppes' Introduction to Logic
Chapter 2 of Suppes' develops the notion of sentential inference and how to construct rules of inference. However, there is one part in his development that seems incorrect no matter how I look at it.
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Tacit inferences?
Does anyone give a useful account of tacit inferences? I am interested in the psychological notion of inference here, and do not in the context focus upon the logical notions of validity and soundness....
