Roush, Sherrilyn (2013) Justification and the Growth of Error. Philosophical Studies, 165 (2). pp. 527-551. ISSN 0031-8116
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Abstract
It is widely thought that in fallible reasoning potential error necessarily increases with every additional step, whether inferences or premises, in the same way that the probability of a lengthening conjunction shrinks. However, this has the absurd consequence that consulting an expert, proof-checking, filling gaps in proofs, and gathering more evidence for a given conclusion necessarily make us worse off, since they also add more steps. I will argue that the self-help steps listed here are of a distinctive type, involving composition rather than conjunction. Error grows differently over composition than over conjunction, I argue, and this dissolves the apparent paradox.
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| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
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| Keywords: | Justification • Growth of error • Internalism • Externalism • Connection thesis • Consulting experts • Reliability • Proof-checking • Reliability-checking • Double-checking • Evidence • Gap-free proof • Total probability | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Evidence |
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| Depositing User: | Sherrilyn Roush | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 30 Jun 2020 02:12 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 30 Jun 2020 02:12 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 17415 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Philosophical Studies | ||||||
| Publisher: | Springer (Springer Science+Business Media B.V.) | ||||||
| Official URL: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/42920519 | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | 10.1007/sl 1098-012-9967-7 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Evidence |
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| Date: | 2013 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 527-551 | ||||||
| Volume: | 165 | ||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0031-8116 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17415 |
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