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A Problem For the Alternative Difference Measure of Confirmation

Climenhaga, Nevin (2013) A Problem For the Alternative Difference Measure of Confirmation. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Among Bayesian confirmation theorists, several quantitative measures of the degree to which an evidential proposition E confirms a hypothesis H have been proposed. According to one popular recent measure, s, the degree to which E confirms H is a function of the equation P(H|E) − P(H|~E). A consequence of s is that when we have two evidential propositions, E1 and E2, such that P(H|E1) = P(H|E2), and P(H|~E1) ≠ P(H|~E2), the confirmation afforded to H by E1 does not equal the confirmation afforded to H by E2. I present several examples that demonstrate the unacceptability of this result, and conclude that we should reject s (and other measures that share this feature) as a measure of confirmation.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Climenhaga, Nevinnclimenh@nd.edu
Keywords: Confirmation Evidence Bayesian epistemology Probability
Subjects: General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Depositing User: Nevin Climenhaga
Date Deposited: 17 Jan 2017 15:23
Last Modified: 17 Jan 2017 15:23
Item ID: 12758
Journal or Publication Title: Philosophical Studies
Official URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11098-01...
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1007/s11098-012-9872-0
Subjects: General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Date: 2013
Page Range: pp. 643-651
Volume: 164
Number: 3
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12758

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