HPS 2682 | Theories of Confirmation | Spring 2021 |
Week | Date | Topic/Reading | Presented by |
1 | Jan. 20 | Introduction Review of topics. Vote. "A Little Survey of Induction" |
Norton Little survey notes |
Introduction. Warm-up Case Studies | |||
2 | Jan. 27 | Nevin Climenhaga (2020). "Evidence and Inductive Inference." The
Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evidence. http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/17450/ |
Norton slides |
Jan. 27 | Evidence as conceived outside philosophy of science | Norton notes |
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Jan. 27 | A brief statement of an interesting evidential claim in science made
by scientists. (Ten minutes each only) |
All registered seminar members | |
Bayesian Confirmation Theory | |||
3 |
Feb. 3 |
"Theme: Bayesian Philosophy of Science" and "Variation 1. Confirmation" in Jan Sprenger and Stephan Hartmann, Bayesian Philosophy of Science This meeting only will be held in WebEx. Contact me for login details. |
Jan Sprenger |
4 |
Feb. 10 |
Ch. 6 "Confirmation" in Michael G. Titelbaum, Fundamentals of
Bayesian Epistemology |
Michael Titelbaum |
5 |
Feb. 17 |
Ch. 1 Metaphysical Preliminaries and Ch. 3 Humean Objective Chance
(and whatever else you find helpful) in Carl Hoefer, Chance
in the World: A Humean Guide to Objective Chance. Oxford
University Press, 2019. |
Carl Hoefer |
6 |
Feb. 24 |
Norton rains on the parade: Ch. 10. Why Not Bayes Ch. 11. Circularity in the Scoring Rule Vindication of Probabilities Ch. 12. No Place to Stand: The Incompleteness of All Calculi of Inductive Inference in John D. Norton, The Material Theory of Induction Optional: "A Demonstration of the Incompleteness of Calculi of Inductive Inference," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 70 (2019), pp. 1119–1144. |
Norton Slides: "Why not Bayes" "Incompletness" Video: "Why not Bayes" "Incompleteness" |
Inference to the best explanation |
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7 | Mar. 3 | Lipton's formulation Peter Lipton, "Inference to the Best Explanation," in W.H. Newton-Smith (ed) A Companion to the Philosophy of Science (Blackwell, 2000) 184-193. (Background Peter Lipton, "Inference to the Best Explanation," Ch. 4 in Inference to the Best Explanation. 2nd.ed. Routledge, 2004.) |
Harrison Payne handout |
Mar. 3 | Critique Kareem Khalifa, Jared Millson, and Mark Risjord, "Inference to the Best Explanation: Fundamentalism’s Failures," Ch. 6 in Kevin McCain and Ted Poston (eds.) Best Explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation. Oxford University Press, 2017. |
Dejan Makovek | |
Mar. 3 | Critique Jonah N. Schupbach, "Inference to the Best Explanation, Cleaned Up and Made Respectable," Ch. 4 in Kevin McCain and Ted Poston (eds.) Best Explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation. Oxford University Press, 2017. |
Brett Park handout |
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8 |
Mar. 10 |
Critique Igor Dovuen, "Inference to the Best Explanation What Is It? And Why Should We Care?" Ch. 2 in Kevin McCain and Ted Poston (eds.) Best Explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation. Oxford University Press, 2017. |
Dejan Makovek slides |
Mar. 10 | Roche-Sober critique William Roche and Elliott Sober, "Explanatoriness Is Evidentially Irrelevant, or Inference to the Best Explanation Meets Bayesian Confirmation Theory." Analysis 73 (2013) pp. 659–68. |
Eric Anderson slides |
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Mar. 10 | Response to Roche-Sober critique Kevin McCain and Ted Poston, "The Evidential Impact of Explanatory Considerations," Ch. 8 in Kevin McCain and Ted Poston (eds.) Best Explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation. Oxford University Press, 2017. |
Harrison Payne slides |
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Mar. 10 | Ch 8. "Inference to the Best Explanation: The General Account" Ch 9. "Inference to the Best Explanation: Examples" in John D. Norton, The Material Theory of Induction. ms |
Norton (briefly only if time) summary notes |
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Principle of indifference |
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9 | Mar. 17 | Ch. 4 "Principle of Indifference" in J. M. Keynes, Treatise on Probability. MacMillan, 1921. | Brett Park Powerpoint |
Mar. 17 | John D. Norton, "Cosmic
Confusions: Not Supporting versus Supporting Not-". Philosophy
of Science. 77 (2010), pp. 501-23. Optional background reading: John D. Norton, "Ignorance and Indifference." Philosophy of Science, 75 (2008), pp. 45-68. |
Norton Powerpoint |
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Mar. 17 | Ben Eva, "Principles of Indifference." | Brendan Fleig-Goldstein slides |
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Mar. 24 |
Student self care day |
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John D. Norton, Large-scale
Structure of Inductive Inference. ms First draft of full ms of March 6 now available online. |
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10 |
Mar.31 |
Ch. 1 The Material Theory of Induction, Briefly Ch. 2 Large-Scale Structure: Four Claims |
Norton Slides: Chapter 1 Chapter 1 update Chapter 2 Video: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 |
11 | Apr. 7 | Term paper topic due prior to seminar. | |
Apr. 7 |
Ch. 3 Circularity Ch. 4 The Uniqueness of Domain-Specific Inductive Logics Ch. 6 The Problem of Induction |
Norton |
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Non-empirical confirmation | |||
12 |
Apr. 14 |
Track 1: General, informal Eric Anderson,Brendan Fleig-Goldstein, Dejan Makovec Richard Dawid (2017), Delimiting the Unconceived. http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/14230/ Carlo Rovelli (2016), "The dangers of non-empirical confirmation,” arXiv:1609.01966v1 George Ellis and Joe Silk, "Defend the integrity of physics” Nature, 516 (Dec 2014), pp. 321-323. Richard Dawid, "Meta-Empirical Confirmation: Addressing Three Points of Criticism” http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/18818 Track 2 Precise, formal (Bayesian) Harrison Payne, Brett Park, Riet van Bork, Youness Ayaita Richard Dawid, Stephan Hartmann, Jan Sprenger (2013) "The No Alternatives Argument" http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/9588/ Tushar Menon (2019) "On the viability of the No Alternatives Argument” http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/15791/ Dawid, Richard, "Does the No Alternatives Argument need Gerrymandering to Be Significant?” http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/18817 |
Richard Dawid Powerpoint |
Sober on Simplicity | |||
13 | Apr. 21 | "Jeffrey's Simplicity Postulate" and subsequent discussion, pp. 87-102 in Elliott Sober, Ockham’s Razors: A User’s Manual Cambridge University Press, 2015. | Brendan Fleig-Goldstein handout |
Apr. 21 | "Jeffrey's Simplicity Postulate" and subsequent discussion, pp. 102-128 in Elliott Sober, Ockham’s Razors: A User’s Manual Cambridge University Press, 2015; and subsequent discussion, pp. 87-102 in Elliott, sober, Ockham’s Razors: A User’s Manual Cambridge University Press, 2015 | Eric Anderson Powerpoint |
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Apr. 21 | "Frequentism and adjustable parameters" and subsequent discussion, pp. 128-148 in Elliott Sober, Ockham’s Razors: A User’s Manual Cambridge University Press, 2015; and subsequent discussion, pp. 87-102 in Elliott, sober, Ockham’s Razors: A User’s Manual Cambridge University Press, 2015 | Riet Van Bork | |
Apr. 21 | Optional background reading: Ch. 6 "Simplicity as a Surrogate" and Ch. 7 "Simplicity in Model Selection" (reviews technical details of AIC) in John D. Norton, The Material Theory of Induction. |
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Apr. 23 |
Last day of undergraduate classes |
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Wrap up | |||
14 | Apr. 28 | Reports on case study or project, General Discussion | Everyone |
Friday Apr. 30 |
Term paper due, 5pm. |
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