Argument and Inference

Argument and Inference PDF Author: Gregory Johnson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262337770
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
A thorough and practical introduction to inductive logic with a focus on arguments and the rules used for making inductive inferences. This textbook offers a thorough and practical introduction to inductive logic. The book covers a range of different types of inferences with an emphasis throughout on representing them as arguments. This allows the reader to see that, although the rules and guidelines for making each type of inference differ, the purpose is always to generate a probable conclusion. After explaining the basic features of an argument and the different standards for evaluating arguments, the book covers inferences that do not require precise probabilities or the probability calculus: the induction by confirmation, inference to the best explanation, and Mill's methods. The second half of the book presents arguments that do require the probability calculus, first explaining the rules of probability, and then the proportional syllogism, inductive generalization, and Bayes' rule. Each chapter ends with practice problems and their solutions. Appendixes offer additional material on deductive logic, odds, expected value, and (very briefly) the foundations of probability. Argument and Inference can be used in critical thinking courses. It provides these courses with a coherent theme while covering the type of reasoning that is most often used in day-to-day life and in the natural, social, and medical sciences. Argument and Inference is also suitable for inductive logic and informal logic courses, as well as philosophy of sciences courses that need an introductory text on scientific and inductive methods.

Argument and Inference

Argument and Inference PDF Author: Gregory Johnson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262337770
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Get Book Here

Book Description
A thorough and practical introduction to inductive logic with a focus on arguments and the rules used for making inductive inferences. This textbook offers a thorough and practical introduction to inductive logic. The book covers a range of different types of inferences with an emphasis throughout on representing them as arguments. This allows the reader to see that, although the rules and guidelines for making each type of inference differ, the purpose is always to generate a probable conclusion. After explaining the basic features of an argument and the different standards for evaluating arguments, the book covers inferences that do not require precise probabilities or the probability calculus: the induction by confirmation, inference to the best explanation, and Mill's methods. The second half of the book presents arguments that do require the probability calculus, first explaining the rules of probability, and then the proportional syllogism, inductive generalization, and Bayes' rule. Each chapter ends with practice problems and their solutions. Appendixes offer additional material on deductive logic, odds, expected value, and (very briefly) the foundations of probability. Argument and Inference can be used in critical thinking courses. It provides these courses with a coherent theme while covering the type of reasoning that is most often used in day-to-day life and in the natural, social, and medical sciences. Argument and Inference is also suitable for inductive logic and informal logic courses, as well as philosophy of sciences courses that need an introductory text on scientific and inductive methods.

Philosophy of Logic

Philosophy of Logic PDF Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 008046663X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 1219

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Book Description
The papers presented in this volume examine topics of central interest in contemporary philosophy of logic. They include reflections on the nature of logic and its relevance for philosophy today, and explore in depth developments in informal logic and the relation of informal to symbolic logic, mathematical metatheory and the limiting metatheorems, modal logic, many-valued logic, relevance and paraconsistent logic, free logics, extensional v. intensional logics, the logic of fiction, epistemic logic, formal logical and semantic paradoxes, the concept of truth, the formal theory of entailment, objectual and substitutional interpretation of the quantifiers, infinity and domain constraints, the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem and Skolem paradox, vagueness, modal realism v. actualism, counterfactuals and the logic of causation, applications of logic and mathematics to the physical sciences, logically possible worlds and counterpart semantics, and the legacy of Hilbert's program and logicism. The handbook is meant to be both a compendium of new work in symbolic logic and an authoritative resource for students and researchers, a book to be consulted for specific information about recent developments in logic and to be read with pleasure for its technical acumen and philosophical insights.- Written by leading logicians and philosophers- Comprehensive authoritative coverage of all major areas of contemporary research in symbolic logic- Clear, in-depth expositions of technical detail- Progressive organization from general considerations to informal to symbolic logic to nonclassical logics- Presents current work in symbolic logic within a unified framework- Accessible to students, engaging for experts and professionals- Insightful philosophical discussions of all aspects of logic- Useful bibliographies in every chapter

Probability Theory

Probability Theory PDF Author:
Publisher: Allied Publishers
ISBN: 9788177644517
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Probability theory

Logic of Statistical Inference

Logic of Statistical Inference PDF Author: Ian Hacking
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316571769
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
One of Ian Hacking's earliest publications, this book showcases his early ideas on the central concepts and questions surrounding statistical reasoning. He explores the basic principles of statistical reasoning and tests them, both at a philosophical level and in terms of their practical consequences for statisticians. Presented in a fresh twenty-first-century series livery, and including a specially commissioned preface written by Jan-Willem Romeijn, illuminating its enduring importance and relevance to philosophical enquiry, Hacking's influential and original work has been revived for a new generation of readers.

The Foundations of Scientific Inference

The Foundations of Scientific Inference PDF Author: Wesley Salmon
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 0822971259
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Not since Ernest Nagel’s 1939 monograph on the theory of probability has there been a comprehensive elementary survey of the philosophical problems of probablity and induction. This is an authoritative and up-to-date treatment of the subject, and yet it is relatively brief and nontechnical. Hume’s skeptical arguments regarding the justification of induction are taken as a point of departure, and a variety of traditional and contemporary ways of dealing with this problem are considered. The author then sets forth his own criteria of adequacy for interpretations of probability. Utilizing these criteria he analyzes contemporary theories of probability, as well as the older classical and subjective interpretations.

Handbook of the Logic of Argument and Inference

Handbook of the Logic of Argument and Inference PDF Author: R.H. Johnson
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080532918
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 509

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Book Description
The Handbook of the Logic of Argument and Inference is an authoritative reference work in a single volume, designed for the attention of senior undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in all the leading research areas concerned with the logic of practical argument and inference. After an introductory chapter, the role of standard logics is surveyed in two chapters. These chapters can serve as a mini-course for interested readers, in deductive and inductive logic, or as a refresher. Then follow two chapters of criticism; one the internal critique and the other the empirical critique. The first deals with objections to standard logics (as theories of argument and inference) arising from the research programme in philosophical logic. The second canvasses criticisms arising from work in cognitive and experimental psychology. The next five chapters deal with developments in dialogue logic, interrogative logic, informal logic, probability logic and artificial intelligence. The last chapter surveys formal approaches to practical reasoning and anticipates possible future developments. Taken as a whole the Handbook is a single-volume indication of the present state of the logic of argument and inference at its conceptual and theoretical best. Future editions will periodically incorporate significant new developments.

The Logic of Scientific Discovery

The Logic of Scientific Discovery PDF Author: Karl Popper
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134470029
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
Described by the philosopher A.J. Ayer as a work of 'great originality and power', this book revolutionized contemporary thinking on science and knowledge. Ideas such as the now legendary doctrine of 'falsificationism' electrified the scientific community, influencing even working scientists, as well as post-war philosophy. This astonishing work ranks alongside The Open Society and Its Enemies as one of Popper's most enduring books and contains insights and arguments that demand to be read to this day.

Logic

Logic PDF Author: Joseph Devey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Logic
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description


Errors of Reasoning. Naturalizing the Logic of Inference

Errors of Reasoning. Naturalizing the Logic of Inference PDF Author: John Woods
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848901148
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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Book Description
Errors of Reasoning is the long-awaited continuation of the author's investigation of the logic of cognitive systems. The present focus is the individual human reasoner operating under the conditions and pressures of real life with capacities and resources the natural world makes available to him. The ensuing logic is thus agent-centred, goal-directed, and time-and-action oriented. It is also as psychologically real a logic as consistent with lawlike regularities of the better-developed empirical sciences of cognition. A point of departure for the book is that good reasoning is typically reasoning that does not meet the orthodox logician's requirements of either deductive validity or the sort of inductive strength sought for by the statistico-empirical sciences. A central objective here is to fashion a logic for this "third-way" reasoning. In so doing, substantial refinements are proposed for mainline treatments of nonmonotonic, defeasible, autoepistemic and default reasoning. A further departure from orthodox orientations is the eschewal of all idealizations short of those required for the descriptive adequacy of the relevant parts of empirical science. Also banned is any unearned assumption of a logic's normative authority to judge inferential behaviour as it actually occurs on the ground. The logic that emerges is therefore a naturalized logic, a proposed transformation of orthodox logics in the manner of the naturalization, more than forty years ago, of the traditional approaches to analytic epistemology. A byproduct of the transformation is the abandonment of justification as a general condition of knowledge, especially in third-way contexts. A test case for this new approach is an account of erroneous reasoning, including inferences usually judged fallacious, that outperforms its rivals in theoretical depth and empirical sensitivity. Errors of Reasoning is required reading in all research communities that seek a realistic understanding of human inference: Logic, formal and informal, AI and the other branches of cognitive science, argumentation theory, and theories of legal reasoning. Indeed the book is a standing challenge to all normatively idealized theories of assessable human performance. John Woods is Director of The Abductive Systems Group at the University of British Columbia, and was formerly the Charles S. Peirce Professor of Logic in the Group on Logic and Computation in the Department of Computer Science, King's College London. He is author of Paradox and Paraconsistency (2003) and with Dov Gabbay, of Agenda Relevance (2003) and The Reach of Abduction (2005). His pathbreaking The Logic of Fiction appeared in 1974, with a second edition by College Publications, 2009.

Paradoxes in Scientific Inference

Paradoxes in Scientific Inference PDF Author: Mark Chang
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1466509864
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Paradoxes are poems of science and philosophy that collectively allow us to address broad multidisciplinary issues within a microcosm. A true paradox is a source of creativity and a concise expression that delivers a profound idea and provokes a wild and endless imagination. The study of paradoxes leads to ultimate clarity and, at the same time, indisputably challenges your mind. Paradoxes in Scientific Inference analyzes paradoxes from many different perspectives: statistics, mathematics, philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, and more. The book elaborates on findings and reaches new and exciting conclusions. It challenges your knowledge, intuition, and conventional wisdom, compelling you to adjust your way of thinking. Ultimately, you will learn effective scientific inference through studying the paradoxes.