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A Confutation of the Pessimistic Induction

Park, Seungbae (2011) A Confutation of the Pessimistic Induction.

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Abstract

The pessimistic induction holds that successful past scientific theories are completely false, so successful current ones are completely false too. I object that past science did not perform as poorly as the pessimistic induction depicts. A close study on the history of science entitles us to construct an optimistic induction that would neutralize the pessimistic induction. Also, even if past theories were completely false, it does not even inductively follow that the current theories will also come out to be completely false because the current theories are more successful and have better birth qualities than the past theories. Finally, the extra success and better birth qualities justify an anti-induction in favor of the present theories.


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Item Type: Published Article or Volume
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Park, Seungbae
Keywords: Current Theory, Integrations of Scientific Fields, Past Theory, Pessimistic Induction
Subjects: General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Depositing User: Dr. Seungbae Park
Date Deposited: 21 Jan 2019 01:06
Last Modified: 21 Jan 2019 01:06
Item ID: 15605
Subjects: General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Date: 2011
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15605

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