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6 - The Significance of Non-Empirical Confirmation in Fundamental Physics

from Part II - Theory Assessment beyond Empirical Confirmation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Radin Dardashti
Affiliation:
University of Wuppertal
Richard Dawid
Affiliation:
Stockholm University
Karim Thébault
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
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Summary

In the absence of empirical confirmation, scientists may judge a theory's chances of being viable based on a wide range of arguments. This chapter argues that such arguments can differ substantially with regard to their structural similarity to empirical confirmation. Arguments that resemble empirical confirmation in a number of crucial respects provide a better basis for reliable judgment and can, in a Bayesian sense, amount to significant non-empirical confirmation. It is shown that three kinds of non-empirical confirmation that have been specified in earlier work do satisfy those conditions.
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Why Trust a Theory?
Epistemology of Fundamental Physics
, pp. 99 - 119
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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