Blanchard, Thomas (2018) Bayesianism and Explanatory Unification: A Compatibilist Account. Philosophy of Science, 85. pp. 682-703. ISSN 0031-8248

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Abstract

Proponents of IBE claim that the ability of a hypothesis to explain a range of phenomena
in a unifying way contributes to the hypothesis’s credibility in light of these phenomena.
I propose a Bayesian justification of this claim that reveals a hitherto unnoticed role for
explanatory unification in evaluating the plausibility of a hypothesis: considerations of
explanatory unification enter into the determination of a hypothesis’s prior by affecting
its ‘explanatory coherence’, that is, the extent to which the hypothesis offers mutually
cohesive explanations of various phenomena.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Blanchard, Thomas tblancha@uni-koeln.de 0000-0001-5002-7517
Keywords:	IBE, Bayesianism, Explanatory Unification, Probability
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Explanation
Depositing User:	Thomas Blanchard
Date Deposited:	26 May 2023 19:57
Last Modified:	26 May 2023 19:57
Item ID:	22142
Journal or Publication Title:	Philosophy of Science
Publisher:	Philosophy of Science Association
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Explanation
Date:	October 2018
Page Range:	pp. 682-703
Volume:	85
ISSN:	0031-8248
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/22142

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