Bayesianism and Explanatory Unification
A Compatibilist Account
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10705141 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Troy Blanchard (0000-0001-5002-7517, Illinois Wesleyan University, corresponding author), Thomas Blanchard |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 85 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 682-703 |
| Publication date | 2018-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8248 • E-ISSN: 1539-767X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1086/699157 |
| OpenAlex | W2812904134 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 14 |
Proponents of IBE claim that the ability of a hypothesis to explain a range of phenomena in a unifying way contributes to the hypothesis’s credibility in light of these phenomena. I propose a Bayesian justification of this claim that reveals a hitherto unnoticed role for explanatory unification in evaluating the plausibility of a hypothesis: considerations of explanatory unification enter into the determination of a hypothesis’s prior by affecting its ‘explanatory coherence’, that is, the extent to which the hypothesis offers mutually cohesive explanations of various phenomena
Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) · Compatibilism · Credibility · Epistemology · Explanatory model · Explanatory power · Free will · Unification · Biomedical Text Mining and Ontologies · Computer Science · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Science and Climate Studies
Inference to the Best Explanation
Explanation and Scientific Understanding
Bayesianism and Unification
Locating IBE in the Bayesian framework
Van Fraassen's critique of inference to the best explanation
Explanatory Unification
On the Evidential Import of Unification
On a Bayesian Analysis of the Virtue of Unification
A Bayesian Account of the Virtue of Unification
Bayesianism and Inference to the Best Explanation
Confirmation, Heuristics, and Explanatory Reasoning
| Citations per year | 1.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |