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Mystery and the evidential impact of unexplainables

Colombo, Matteo and Klein, Dominik (2017) Mystery and the evidential impact of unexplainables. [Preprint]

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Abstract

What’s the evidential impact of learning that something is a mystery? To answer this question, we first explicate the notion of a mystery in terms of unexplainability. After distinguishing different ways in which something can be unexplainable, we develop a test to evaluate the evidential impact of two distinct types of unexplainables: symmetrical and asymmetrical unexplainables. We argue that only a-symmetrical unexplainables have evidential impact. We finally clarify how our explication of mysteries as unexplainables complements existing accounts of abduction and contributes to the literature on the mystery of consciousness.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Colombo, Matteom.colombo@uvt.nl
Klein, DominikDominik.Klein@uni-bayreuth.de
Keywords: Explanation; Confirmation; Unexplainability; Mystery; Credences; Consciousness
Subjects: General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Explanation
General Issues > Formal Learning Theory
Depositing User: Dr. Matteo Colombo
Date Deposited: 24 Mar 2017 13:54
Last Modified: 24 Mar 2017 13:54
Item ID: 12934
Subjects: General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Explanation
General Issues > Formal Learning Theory
Date: 2017
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12934

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