Dawid, Richard and Hartmann, Stephan and Sprenger, Jan (2013) The No Alternatives Argument. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Scientific theories are hard to find, and once scientists have found a theory H, they often believe that there are not many distinct alternatives to H. But is this belief justified? What should scientists believe about the number of alternatives to H, and how should they change these beliefs in the light of new evidence? These are some of the questions that we will address in this paper. We also ask under which conditions failure to find an alternative to H confirms the theory in question. This kind of reasoning (which we call the No Alternatives Argument) is frequently used in science and therefore deserves a careful philosophical analysis.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Dawid, Richard richard.dawid@univie.ac.at Hartmann, Stephan s.hartmann@lmu.de 0000-0001-8676-2177 Sprenger, Jan J.Sprenger@uvt.nl
Additional Information:	The paper will appear in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
Keywords:	Confirmation theory, evidence, underdetermination
Subjects:	General Issues > Confirmation/Induction Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics General Issues > Theory/Observation
Depositing User:	Stephan Hartmann
Date Deposited:	25 Feb 2013 13:16
Last Modified:	12 Jul 2024 17:27
Item ID:	9588
Subjects:	General Issues > Confirmation/Induction Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics General Issues > Theory/Observation
Date:	24 February 2013
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9588

Available Versions of this Item

• The No Alternatives Argument. (deposited 17 Jul 2012 06:09)
  • The No Alternatives Argument. (deposited 25 Feb 2013 13:16) [Currently Displayed]

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