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The ignorance behind inconsistency toleration

Martínez-Ordaz, María del Rosario (2020) The ignorance behind inconsistency toleration. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Inconsistency toleration is the phenomenon of working with inconsistent information without threatening one's rationality. Here I address the role that ignorance plays for the tolerance of contradictions in the empirical sciences. In particular, I contend that there are two types of ignorance that, when present, can make epistemic agents to be rationally inclined to tolerate a contradiction. The first is factual ignorance, understood as temporary undecidability of the truth values of the conflicting propositions. The second is what I call “ignorance of theoretical structure", which is lack of knowledge of relevant inference patterns within a specific theory. I argue that these two types of ignorance can be explanatory of the scientists' rational disposition to be tolerant towards contradictions, and I illustrate this with a case study from neutrino physics.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Martínez-Ordaz, María del Rosariomartinezordazm@gmail.com0000-0003-2118-3515
Keywords: Inconsistency toleration, factual ignorance, ignorance of theoretical structure, measurement of solar neutrinos' flux.
Subjects: General Issues > Structure of Theories
General Issues > Theory/Observation
General Issues > Values In Science
Depositing User: Dr. María del Rosario Martínez-Ordaz
Date Deposited: 11 Oct 2021 03:43
Last Modified: 11 Oct 2021 03:43
Item ID: 19672
Subjects: General Issues > Structure of Theories
General Issues > Theory/Observation
General Issues > Values In Science
Date: 2020
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19672

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