Lutz, Sebastian (2011) On Likelihoodism and Intelligent Design. [Preprint]
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
|
PDF
lutz-on_likelihoodism_and_id.pdf Download (145kB) |
Abstract
Two common and plausible claims in the philosophy of science are that (i) a theory that makes no predictions is not testable and (ii) one cannot confirm a theory by criticizing a competing one absent further assumptions about their relation. Elliott Sober has developed these claims within likelihoodism, which defines the testability and confirmation of a theory only in contrast to another, and has argued that the claims hold for intelligent design (ID) when contrasted with evolutionary theory (ET). I show that Sober’s arguments rely on a contentious hidden premise, and that within likelihoodism, both claims are false for ID and ET under his assumptions and one very weak further assumption about ID and ET. I then show that, given Sober’s assumptions, the claims are true for a non-contrastive criterion of testability close to the Bayesian one and the relevance criterion of confirmation.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
||||||
| Additional Information: | To be presented at the APA Eastern Division Meeting, Washington, DC, December 27th–30th 2011 | ||||||
| Keywords: | likelihoodism; Bayesianism; testability; confirmation; empirical significance; intelligent design | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Science vs. Pseudoscience General Issues > Theory/Observation |
||||||
| Depositing User: | Sebastian Lutz | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 15 May 2011 15:45 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 15 May 2011 15:45 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 8608 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Science vs. Pseudoscience General Issues > Theory/Observation |
||||||
| Date: | 14 February 2011 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/8608 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}