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Getting from P to Q: Valid Inferences and Heuristics1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Norman Swartz
Norman Swartz
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
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Extract

Epistemologists have known for two-and-a-half centuries that there are serious difficulties surrounding non-demonstrative inference. The best-known problem, the problem of induction, was first diagnosed by Hume (1739) in the Treatise. In our own century, several more problems were added, e.g., by Hempel (1945)—the paradox of the ravens—and by Goodman (1955)—the “new,” or exacerbated, problem of induction. But an even greater blow lay ahead: within the decade after Goodman's problem appeared, Gettier (1963) was to publish his famous challenge to the traditional analysis of knowledge which, again, underscored how problematic inductive inferences are.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , Fall 1993 , pp. 689 - 702
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1993

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